The Mew Toy
by Banjoboy5
Summary: When a boy's father falls to a deadly sickness, he is forced to 'play' with the Legendary Mew in exchange for his recovery. However, there is something suspicious about this whole thing...   TF fic.
1. Opening Note

**Sigh… hello, I am still alive. I could waste your time with excuses as to how INSANELY LONG it took to update, but I doubt you care. That said, I DO need to mention that I've lost my beta reader, so forgive me for any typos till I get a new one. **

**Also, due to a file misplace, I actually found out just a few days before I finished the newest chapter that I actually had ANOTHER chapter that was almost done… so yeah. Sorry it took me a YEAR to realize I had something I could have put up sooner. Shoot me, I deserve it.**

**I'm sorry it took so long, and I'd be happy to claim I'll have the next chapter up sooner, but… sigh. It's hard to write when your pen pal / co-writer goes away. I'm still going to work on it, but no promises this time. I'd probably fail to meet them anyway.**

**So, that said, here's the next two chapters. In other news I FINNALY finished that chapter in GFS (Oh, how I HATE writer's block), so check that as well if you still care about that one. Anyway, hope they can prove to have been worth the wait in some way!**

Ok, I have a little explaining to do. Before anyone sends me an angry PM or something, I am NOT abandoning GFS. I'm still pounding away at it as I put this up. That said, I am putting this up at the insistence of a good friend as I have been working on this in an effort to get over my writer's block.

Also, said friend has a story of his own that he finally got around to putting the prologue up for. It's called The Prophecy of Thunder. Check it out if you're interested.

While I'm at it: this story is here thanks to him. He's been helping me get pass my writers block for years now, so I owe him for all the inspiration he's given me for this, and GFS.

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon.

This story was inspired by 'In Mew's World' by SatAMNerd15. I realize that there are a small number of similarities, but this is NOT a clone of it.

It takes place in the Pokemon world, and has no connections of any sort with GFS.

This story contains randomness and transformations. If neither interests you, leave now. Also, I will not be putting up a pokemon list this time as this one is not less-informed-individual friendly.

**Review Responses!**

To: pokeprincess4213: Thank you! Glad to know this is off to a good start.

To: Drakesword: My story? You mean GFS, or this one? Er… I'm going to assume it's GFS, and say that I'm once again sorry for taking so long to update.

To: Stolloss: Oh man, this is huge… ok. Thanks! I'm glad I've done my character development right. Well… it's kinda a gig I came up with in development. Rest assured, she'll be easier to understand as the story progresses. I've realized that, and have changed it in the new chapter. When I get around to it, I'll fix the first two. That would be a small editing requirement I missed. I'll have it fixed by the time you read this. Sigh… look, I know it's extremely similar, but I am NOT copying the ideas. This new chapter goes away from it almost entirely! Give me some time to branch the story out!

To: tam007: Yes, I do plan on seeing this to the end, but please forgive me if I'm slow to update.

To: mwc01: exactly! This is not a clone! And if I'm not mistaken, In Mew's World isn't the only Mew based TF story out there besides this one.

To: psychopichugirl: Sigh… again, I have to warn you I am slow to update. I AM going to keep at this though, so bear with me

To: VupixTrainer: Eh… Come again? Was that just a fancy way of saying my story is engaging, the plot is interesting, and the characters are well developed? I think I'll just say thank you for the positive outlook. Hm… maybe I should use that idea…

To: mwc01: Depends on how many kinds of transformation I have the guts to put into this. That said, I think there are gonna be a lot.

To: Zigzagoon: Uh… (looks at last update date) well, I'm not dead! That's worth something, right?

To: SaTAMNerd15: Glad your enjoying it, and said mysteries WILL be explained…Eventually.

To: Kaito X Len – Banana Split: Uh... Should I respond with as many o's in my thank you? Either way, glad to hear it's that cool.

To: Dave McKinsey: If you're talking about that 'iffy stuff" that sometimes comes up with TF stories, I can relate, I'm wary of it myself. This story is indeed about humor and the works, so don't expect something mature here. Also, who's your pal? I'd like to know who's recommending my story! And which line is that again? I'm pretty sure I've used it several times.

To: Oh My Gai: That's exactly what it's meant to be, so that's good to hear.

To: awesomesauce4: 3 thumbs? Ok, what species are you again? Eh, never mind. So yeah, I'm happy to see I'm hitting it right.

To: Foxyjosh: Well, that explains why you added it to your C2. Hope I can satisfy!

To: Zohaku (X2): You really like this, don't you? Reviewing separate chapters… consider me touched.

_**NEW**_ To: 2chaotic: I'll try

_**NEW**_ To: awesomesauce4: Yes, but that was a long time ago. Who said it was only the second time? It's only the second time Charity knows about.

_**NEW**_ To: Bored out of my head: here it is, however late.

_**NEW**_ To: mwc01: that pretty much summed me up, right?

_**NEW**_ To: Something dictionary related: Is it? I didn't notice.

_**NEW**_ To: Zohaku (again): thanks again.

_**NEW**_ To: AwesomeChef: Eh… sorry but no?

_**NEW**_ To: 8TailFox: What's with all the impossible ratings I get? Anyways, I like the idea, but I had something in mind before your review that on that matter, so yeah. Thanks for the idea anyway.

_**NEW**_ To: MeloDensesa: Now. Sorry it took so long.

_**NEW**_ To: tam007: Eh… about the frightening thing… just check the new chapter…

_**NEW**_ To: SamPD2: Well, I'm not really into chimera, but I think about it. Also, I'm trying VERY hard to avoid a fourth wall break. Hilarious yes, but I want my story be somewhat serious, and fourth wall breaking always dooms that.

_**NEW**_ To: Sgt-TR: Well, does anyone else have any bright tf ideas for mint? It's easily the most random thing I'm ever going to put in this… I hope. How can she make up for something Sam doesn't remember?

_**NEW**_ To: CJSchulz14: Well… you kind of had to…

_**NEW**_ To: krispykat1993: well, I did. Sorry it took so long.

_**NEW**_ To: Mimi the deer: I am, however slowly.

_**NEW**_ To: PokeSkyper: … Bye. It was nice chatting.

_**NEW**_ To: NanoCarp: Your welcome… for what again?

_**NEW**_ To: dagset8: I'll get around to it, I promise. And it is done.

_**NEW**_ To: MusicMath: Here! Here!

_**NEW**_ To: interfectorumbrae: sure.

_**NEW**_ To: fractalman: if you say so.

_**NEW**_ To: Blade Starshot: Ok, now that was amusing. Wait… Dang! Now I can't use that joke!

That's it. I'd appreciate it if you review this, and anonymous reviews are welcome.


	2. Prologue: An Unusual Invitation

**Prologue: An Unusual Invitation**

_Samuel Trepper was not your typical 12 year old. He didn't want to be a trainer, he didn't dream of being a Pokémon master, in fact, he wasn't even really interested in Pokémon besides the family Pokémon, Charity the Chansey, and then it was only as a friend, not a partner. All he wanted to do in life was write stories, live an easy life, and keep an eye on his bed-ridden father. Most people looked at him and thought that he was heartless to Pokémon, being seeing as he barely paid any attention to them, no matter how badly they needed his help; but the truth was he couldn't have been more respectful._

_When he saw a Pokémon that was hurt, but refused to give up, he knew that it was trying to pull itself up again on its own. He believed that Pokémon had pride, much the same as humans, and __by letting them fight their own battles with life he was letting them keep it.__ The only time he ever helped was when the Pokémon simply couldn't keep fighting anymore, and was desperately in need of medical attention. Then, he had carried it to the Pokémon Center, left some money on the counter to pay for its pokeball, and left before Nurse Joy could even ask his name._

_That had happened only once in his life, when he noticed a Pichu stuck in the mud of a riverbank. He had heard that it had gotten a trainer partner, and the two had since grown to be best friends. It made him happy to know that he had made another being happy; because he couldn't remember the last time he had felt such happiness… the joy of partnership…_

"I'm home!" I called as I pulled the door shut. Charity came up to me. "Chansey! Chan?" "No thanks Charity, I had lunch on my way home." "Sey." And she went back to doing whatever she'd been doing before I came home. How did I understand her? Live with a Pokémon for 12 years, and the name-only thing starts to turn into words. Now, I can't understand Pokémon, but I CAN understand the one I grew up with. I made my way up to my dad's room and knocked on the door. "Hey dad, I got the book you wanted from the library." A heard his faint voice form the other side. "Good. Bring it to me…" I opened the door and went in.

My dad was ill, that was the only word for it. Nobody in the town knew what it was, but it was there, and it was getting worse every day. He was bed-ridden, barely able to speak, and I think he forgot my name for the third time last night. And the worst part was that we couldn't afford to get him to a hospital, no matter how bad he got. When my mother died in childbirth, he had been the only one supporting our family. And when he fell ill, it fell upon me to make enough money for us to live, but even with two shifts at the local general store, it was all I could do to afford enough for food for the three of us.

"Here" I passed him the book. In his condition, the only form of entertainment he could enjoy was reading, and the local library had been kind enough to let him have more freedom with whatever he borrowed, and no late fees. Strangely, no matter how ill he got, his mind was as sharp as ever. His body just couldn't keep up with it anymore. "Ah… Great Pokémon Legends… One of…the finest…novels I…ever had the…honor of helping… publish…"

When he was a trainer, he had an unusual experience while in the Hoenn region. He once encountered the legendary Ho-oh, and had offered the journal he wrote of the experience to the publisher of the book. The publisher gave us some good cash for it, but right now, we're saving it in the bank so we have a little money in case a real emergency happens, but despite our best attempts, the back-up money just keeps getting sucked into our bills.

I made to leave, but he motioned for me to stay. "Son… have I… ever told you about… the greatest experience…of my life?" That was weird. "I think so, but I thought that seeing Ho-oh was the greatest." "It was… great… but not… the greatest…" "Oh. Then what was your greatest?" "Here…" He held the book out to me as best he could, and I took it. "Read… the legend… of…" He was drifting off. He'd been doing it more and more as he got worse. "Legend of what?" "…m…e…w…" And he was out, sleeping peacefully.

I stood there for a moment, making sure that he hadn't fallen into a coma, and then I got up, left, and closed the door. I went to my room, which was down the hall from dad's. I sat down on the bed, and looked through the table of contents. "Let's see… The Legend of Memories, The Legend of Mini Pokémon, The Legend of Pokémon Mummies, ah: The Legend of Mew." I turned to the page, and read the subtitle: from the journal of Thomas Trepper. "Never knew his journal had more than one legend in it…"

It said that Mew was the second greatest of all legendaries, as well as the second most powerful, next to Arceus. It stated that despite its awesome power, it was very playful and immature, although very well behaved. It had abilities unmatched, being able to manipulate reality itself, and even create a small world within ours that could be manipulated at its will as easily as a ditto could transform. However, despite the endless possibilities it could achieve with such power, it was rather bored and lonely, and longed for a playmate.

"This is weird… where did dad get all this information? It doesn't seem like this was found on temple walls or something like that…" I rolled over and looked around me. My room had been the only source of comfort for the last 4 years. No work, no sick father to worry about, and not a care in the world. Most people think I'd be a lazy bum if it wasn't for my father, but I don't think so. True, I prefer the nice and easy life, but it's not because I'm lazy, but because that's my style: staying calm and letting things roll.

"Sigh…" That almost never happened, and I had to keep active and fearful for my father's sake… I closed my eyes and let my mind wander. Random thoughts drifted up to me: my childhood, my only friend, my mother… I felt better though. I got up, and started writing my story. I'd been working on it for some time now. It's about a boy who's been an orphan for as long as he can remember, who befriends a young Pichu, and learns the true meaning of the word happiness. I'd written over half of it by now, and was still going strong. I'd already found a publisher, so all I had to do was finish it, and it would be published across the region. I was hoping it would be a sell well enough for me to get enough cash to take my father to the hospital. Time passed, as time does, and before I knew it, it was dark outside.

I think it was when I finished the first paragraph of chapter 32 when I heard frantic foot steps outside my room. "CHANSEY!" Charity ran so hard into my room that two of the door hinges came loose. That could only mean one thing: something must be wrong. And the only thing in this house that could go wrong that wasn't something falling apart was- Oh no. "Don't tell me it's-" "CHANSEY!" "Oh-no…" I have no idea how I got to my dad's room only six seconds after I said that, but I did. My father's condition had just hit the breaking point, and not the good kind. "DAD!" I pulled him up and checked for a pulse. It was so weak that if I hadn't spent all those days training my ability to check pulses, I'd have said it was already over. Charity came running in behind me. "Charity, you take care of him, I'm going to call the hospital."

"Chan? Chansey…" "I know it'll put us into bankruptcy, but we have to help him!" I made to run to the phone, but Charity grabbed me and held me back. "Charity? Let me go!" "Chan! Chansey Chan!" "What? He asked you to stop me if this happened?" "Chan. Chansey Chan Chansey Chansey." She looked heartbroken for having to tell me. "… Charity…" I was in denial. I couldn't believe it: my father wanted me to let him die so I'd be able to live a happy life without dept.

I don't know how long the two of us stood there, holding each other. Finally, she let me go, knowing that I would not disobey my father, not even for this. She was right. The first thing I wanted to do was run into my room and cry the night away, but I knew that if I did, I wouldn't be able to stand being in the room anymore, so instead I went downstairs to our basement. It wasn't much of a basement, just a place where we put all the junk we didn't need any more but hadn't gotten rid of yet. I sat down between two boxes full of whatever, and buried my face in my hands.

I had planned to stay there until Charity came down to tell me it was over, but like most of my plans, this one was ruined barely five minutes after I'd thought of it, though not in quite the way I'd been expecting. _Poor boy. The only family he has left, and it's about to leave him all alone with only the family helper to live with. Yes, she's a great Pokémon, but she could never fill the hole in your heart that your father will leave. _What the! I pulled my head up and looked around. Who's there?"

_Tee hee__, are you really an easy going guy? The moment you hear someone talk to you, you think it's an intruder! I think someone has been lying to himself! Te he… _What? Whoever it was could tell what I was thinking? How could anyone do that? _Because I'm psychic, silly. If you'd been paying attention, you might have noticed that I'm talking in your head! _Oops… guess I missed that… _Te, he. You're funny. _"Who are you? Where are you?" I was looking around frantically now, adrenaline flowing through my veins.

_Who am I? I think the question should be what am I? After all, I'm not a human, and you subconsciously refer to every thing that isn't human as an it. _Hey! Just because I can't tell male and female Pokémon apart doesn't mean- _I never said you meant it to be rude! Silly human! Te he! _Ok, this was starting to get annoying now. "Can't you just show yourself to me? I'm getting tired of not having a face to talk to." _Only if you say please! _"Sigh… please?" _Ok!_

I saw a sparkle out of the corner of my eye, but when I turned to see it, it had zoomed behind the box on my left. _But you'll have to catch me first! _"I don't have time for games! I have a father who's sick-" _If you can catch me, I promise to help you with that! _Ok, now I was interested. _Yay! Try and catch me if you can! _The next thing I knew, the sparkle was zooming around the basement. I'm going to skip over all the stumbling, falling, and running I had to do to catch that sparkle, because it can be said by repeating the following line over and over again: I jump for a catch, but I missed.

Finally, I made a grab, and caught it. Yes! _Aw… you win! _I opened my hands, and let the sparkle fly out. _OK, you get to see me now. _The sparkle grew into a large bubble, and suddenly, it became transparent, and I could see what was inside. What I couldn't do was believe my eyes. "WHAT! M-M-M-MEW!" _Hey, you know what I am! What else do you know about me? _"Hey, don't go looking into my mind!" _Sorry, but I already did! _"Grr…"

_Ooh… your daddy is Thomas. Aw… to think he's gotten so sick… _"Huh? You know him?" _Well, duh! How do you think he got that information about me? The Internet? _"You're a Pokémon, how do you know what the Internet is?" _Because I can manipulate reality! Remember? I can do anything I want! _Then I noticed that the stairs were missing, so even if I had turned down Mew's request to play I'd still have had to play. _You just noticed that? You're a really bad noticer! _"That's not even a word!" _I know, but I like it._

"Ok, you promised you'd help my father, so help him before-" _That was before I knew it was Thomas. _"Huh? Why don't you want to help him?" _It's not that I don't want to help him, it's just that he owes me a favor. I can't let him double owe me; he'd never be able to pay me back! _… "So… there's no way he can be saved… _Hm… _Mew got all thoughtful looking. _Tell you what, I'll make you a deal. _"A deal?" _Yeah. You do know what those are right? _"Hey!" _Te he!_

_Anyway, here's the deal: I can heal your dad, but there has to be something in it for me. _I didn't like the sound of that. We barely had enough cash to live. What in the world could a legendary Pokémon want that's cheaper than 5$? _Silly human. I can make all the money I want. Besides, there's nothing you can buy that I can't make myself. _"Grr… THEN WHY ARE YOU OFFERING ME A DEAL? THIS IS VERY PERSONAL YOU KNOW! I'M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR JOKES!"

_Hm… you also seem to be very forgetful. That could come in handy to know for later, te he. _I gave up, and started looking for a way out. _Aw, you want to leave? You didn't even let me tell you what I wanted… _"Sigh… ok Mew, what do you want?" … "Please?" _I want a playmate. It's against the rules to use my powers on a living being that doesn't let me, and I've been using these powers for so long they're boring if I don't share them with someone. So here's the deal: if you be my playmate for a while, say 30 days or so, I'll make your dad so healthy he could drink muddy water without getting a tummy ache._

…

"What exactly do you mean by playmate?" _Someone to play with; it's as simple as that. "_Hm… how would we work this out?" _I'll stay down here in your basement, and every day for the next 30 days you come down when I want you to. Every day you play with me, I'll make your father a little healthier. I'll keep him alive for tonight, and we play tomorrow in the morning. Does that sound good for now? _"Yeah." What I didn't say was- _If you decide to cut the deal after your dad's healthy enough to live then the deal is off, and he'll slip right back to the way he was before I came here. _Ok, never mind.

I ran it through in my head one last time: I save the life of my father, I save a fortune on his medical bills, I get an opportunity to quit my job, and all I have to do is play with a legendary Pokémon for 30 days. Of course, Mew could manipulate reality… _I promise you'll be able to get back to life as if nothing ever happened once we're done, besides your father getting better of course. _"Ok… then it's a deal." I held out my hand for Mew to shake, but instead she psychically moved it up and down. _Be here when it gets dark tomorrow! _And with that, she disappeared. "Sigh…" I mumbled as I went up the steps that had reappeared. "Hold on Dad, I'm not giving you up just yet..."


	3. Day 1: THAT Kind of Playmate

**Day 1: THAT Kind of Playmate**

"Chansey! Chansey!" "I don't know Charity. If Mew wanted to make me her slave she probably wouldn't have let me come back up again." The two of us had been debating the matter all day. She seemed convinced that Mew was planning something underhanded that I would not have agreed to do if I knew about it. Personally, I thought so too. My gut was telling me that this was a one-way ticket to disaster, but I really didn't care. It was only 30 days of being a playmate. Could it really be so bad that I'd want to quit in that short amount of time?

"Hey wait a minute, are you saying that a legendary would try to stab me in the back? Isn't that being unfaithful to her?" "Chan! Chansey Chansey-chan!" "Good point. If she was a ruler of any sort, she wouldn't have had to ask before using me as a playmate." "Chansey-Chan. Chansey Chansey chan." "A toy? what in the world made you think that she would make me her toy?" "Chansey-chansey-sey." "Well..." I turned to my dad. He was still breathing, but so faintly that his chest barely rose a quarter of an inch.

"Regardless, This is my dad's life we're talking about here. Isn't _ days of suffering worth saving his life?" "Chansey Chansey Chansey!" "I know this is reality, but that doesn't-" Chansey Chansey Chansey! Chan-chan, chansey-chan, chansey chansey!" Her face showed deep concern. Even deeper concern than she showed for my father, and he was her partner. That caught my attention. "Charity, were you with dad when he met Mew?" "Sey..." "I'll take that as a yes. Do you know what she has in store for me?"

"Chansey, chancey." "Really? How can you be sure?" "Chansey chansey." "Hm..." I sat down on the the chair at the end of the room. "Why would Mew ask dad not to tell anyone what she did in there? It's one thing to not want him to reveal personal things about her, but leaving out almost everything besides that she's playful, powerful, and lonely?" "Chansey chansey!" "True. Still, nothing, not even your constant insistence, is going to keep me from going down there at least once. After that, we'll decide on what to do next." "Chansey." She seemed satisfied with my answer.

It was an off day from my job, so I spent the rest of the day writing. As I wrote, my mind wandered again, but this time, to something I'd never thought about before: what are my priorities in life? Do I care if I'm crushed by this experience if it'll save my dad's life? Just how much am I willing to give up? Just how far am I willing to go? I pondered about these and other issues all through the day. Next thing I knew, it was dark out already. With a deep sigh, I saved what I'd typed, shut down the computer, and went downstairs for a snack before I went into the basement.

"Chansey chansey! Chansey chansey!" "I don't care if I throw up, I'm going into the unknown, and I don't want to face it on an empty stomach." "Chansey..." "I'll be fine. It's only day one, and I'm sure we'll spend more time working out how to do everything than actually doing anything." Boy, could I have been more wrong? "Chansey-chan." "Ok, I promise I'll be careful not to do anything stupid or reckless." "Chan." With that I got up, threw the empty bag of trail mix in the trash, and went into the basement.

I don't remember what I was expecting to find down there, probably everything the same as it was last night, but I can tell you right now, it was NOTHING like what I was expecting. The floor was pale white, and stretched as far as I could see. The walls were gone; instead, there was an openness all around. I looked up, and saw that it was the same thing upwards, except for a small opening at the top of the stairs which was obviously where I had entered. Beyond that there was nothing else here. **Hey wait a minute, where did all-**

"Your stuff go? I sent it up to your attic." "Wha?" I turned around on the steps, and saw Mew looking right at me. "B-B-B-ut we don't-" "Well, now you do! You should take a look when we're done." "You-You- I- Well- I mean- YOU'RE TALKING?" "Well, my mouth is moving, and words are coming out." "But- But- You're a Pokemon!" "So? All Pokemon can talk." She started giggling. "But you silly humans just can't seem to understand! It's so funny! We can understand you, and you can't understand us..."

I was lost for words. **This was the fourth time in my life I was lost for words.** _Well, you don't have to use words! I'm psychic, so you only have to think it! _**Hey wait a minute, if she could talk and speak psychically, than why didn't she-** "Because this way I got you to be lost for words!" _It's so much easier to think than talk, plus it's a lot harder to lie this way. _"Besides, your reaction was funny! Te he." **Hardy, har har.**

**So... what's with this place? Why did you make it all open and dull?** _Because this way, it's easier to manipulate. It's going to be changed around a lot, so this way I have an easier time doing it. _**So when are you going to change it into what you have planned for tonight?** _Once you get off the stairs so I can take them out of the picture. _**WHA?** _Don't worry, I'll bring them back when we're done. _**Sigh... here we go again...** And with that I stepped off the last step onto the pale floor. As soon as I did, the stairs behind me disappeared.

**Ok, so what do you have in mind?** _In mind...te he, that's a good one! _**I'm not trying to be funny here.** _I know. That's makes it even funnier! Te he! _**WOULD YOU JUST GET THIS STARTED ALREADY?** **I have an early morning tomorrow, and I can't afford to be late! **_It doesn't matter how long it takes while you're in my little world. _**Huh?** _I speed time up in here, it goes slower out there, we take 5 hours, it only takes away 5 minutes. This way, we don't have to worry about running out of time to play! _**Wait, if time doesn't matter, then when do I get to leave?**

_As soon as we're done playing for today. _**Who knows how long that's going to take...** _Don't worry, I'm going to go easy on you for day one. I'm still going to play with you, but I'm not going to play with you as much as I will later. _I didn't like the sound of that, but seeing that that my only exit had vanished I really didn't have much of a choice here. _Ok, let's make this place more fun! _

The world around us began molding into walls, a floor, and a ceiling. "Whoa..." I got my voice back. When it stopped, the room that had formed was about half the size that our basement had been before. The walls were yellow, and looked soft like a mattress or something. The floor was a pink carpet that felt really comfy to the touch. The ceiling was sky blue, and the paint was so well done I couldn't even tell it was paint. "It isn't paint, it's just blue." "Oh. Never mind then."

"Ok, let's get started!" "Ok... but... what exactly are we doing?" "This!" She pulled a board game out from behind her back. "A board game?" I took the box and looked at the title: Path of Fate. "Never heard of this one. How do we play it?" "Two things. One: you've never heard of it because I made it up myself, and two: We're not playing, you are!" OK, now I was hopelessly confused.

"Don't worry, I'll explain as you go. Here..." A quick flash of light, and the board game was out and open. "... That's it?" "I did say I was going easy on you." There were only four parts to the game: the board, a die, one character piece (which looked like me for some reason), and a slot thingy that was too small to hold anything bigger than a piece of paper. The board looked rather simple: there were 8 spaces: a start, six spaces that were blue, green, white, blue, green, and white, and a finish.

"What's the goal of the game?" "Simple, reach the finish." "I know that, but what's the catch? There has to be more to this game than just rolling a dice and moving the piece." "Duh, it wouldn't be any fun if it was like that." "So what's the catch?" "Roll the dice of destiny and you'll find out! I promise I won't cheat on the dice." She said it in a oh-so-innocent-yet-clearly-guilty voice that told my gut that the last thing I should do is listen to her, but, seeing that there was no going back now, I decided to just go ahead and see what happened. Besides, I was kind of curious as to what she had in mind.

"Ok then." I picked up the dice and rolled. I got a 3. "Ok, so you move 3 spaces." The piece on the board moved forward on it's own, and stopped on the white space. "How'd you- oh yeah, psychic." "Yes! He can be taught! Te he!" "Not funny." "Yes it is! Ok, now you get a card!" The small slot thingy suddenly spat out a card. I pick it up, and read what it said: Pikachu: 15 minutes. "Yay! A Pikachu card! Now, do you want to face your fate now, or do you want to save it?" **Huh? What does that mean? **

"It's a rule of the game. Every card is a fate. Every color is a type of fate. When you land on a space, you get a fate. When you get one, you can face it right away, or save it. If you face it right away, you face it right away, and it will wear off after spending the time on the card. If you chose to save it, you don't face it until the end. You can save one card of every type of fate." "If that's the case, then why would I want to save it?"

"Well, if you land on a space of the same color and you have a card already saved of that type, you get to get rid of one of them, and the other becomes the saved one." "Ok... what's the catch?" "Simple: once you get to the finish, you have to face every card you saved at the same time. It could be really hard to face several fates at once." "I see, so basically it's face it alone now, or face it along with any other I've saved for the chance to skip over a fate." "Yes! You're smarter than you look!" She winked at me. "So... what exactly are fates?" "I'll tell you when you face one! But first: do you want to use it now, or save it?"

I thought about it for a minute, then I decided that because there was a chance of me escaping without getting another card and that if I only saved one I would basically be putting it off, I decided that- "Saved it is." The card disappeared from my hand and reappeared on the wall behind Mew. "You know, these rules seem kind of-" "Don't worry, you're going to play this again with a longer board. I'm just going easy on you today!" Man, her habit of knowing what I was going to say before I did was getting really-" "That's why I do it! It's fun to watch you get annoyed! Te he... ok, roll again!"

Mumbling to myself, I rolled again. **Come on, 4 or higher...a 2. Ugh... Ok, a green space. what kind of fate is this one?** I checked the card that came out: 3 years: 5 minutes. "Use now, or save?" I already had one saved, and I didn't like the sound of facing two at once, but something told me to think about it first. What does it mean by 3 years? Will she make three years go by in five minutes or something? Something about accepting my fate just really felt... I don't know, ominous. In the end, I sided with common sense. "Face now! YAY! This is that part I've been waiting for!" That didn't sound good.

The card disappeared in my hand, and a feeling of lightness ran across my body. **This cannot be good.** My vision started to go crazy, it looked like the room was getting bigger... then I realized I wasn't seeing things, the room really was getting bigger! "What the-" My voice! I clamped my hands onto my mouth. It sounded so high pitched! That's when it came to me: the room wasn't getting bigger, I was getting smaller! "WHAT THE-" "Watch your language. Little kids aren't allowed to use bad words!" Mew was giggling out of control. "WHA? I'm not-" "Yes you are! And you're getting littler by the second!"

Then I finally realized what the 3 years meant: 3 years old! Mew was turning me into a toddler! I closed my eyes, telling myself this was all a bad dream. _Unfortunately for you, it's not! Te he! _**Mew, stop this! I thought you wanted a playmate!** _I did, and I have one! I didn't mean I wanted someone to play with me, I wanted someone to play WITH! Like playing WITH a toy! _**WHAT?** I was feeling really bad right then; physically, mentally _and_ emotionally. I think my mind just kind of froze up right there, completely lost in shock, because the next thing I remember clearly was that the lightness feeling faded away, leaving my body feeling rather heavy.

I didn't move. **If I stand still and keep my eyes shut for the five minutes, I can go through this without facing anything.** _Except that the five minutes have to be spent EXPERIENCING the fate. If you stay still and keep your eyes shut, you'll have to stay that way until you do! _**That's not fair!** _Neither is pretending it never happened. _Ugh... I hate to admit it, but she had a point there. _So, are you going to look, or am I going to have to make you? _**You wouldn't!** _Why not? _... _My thoughts exactly. _**Oh, I am not going to enjoy this!**

Gingerly, I opened my eyes. "Wha!" Mew was floating right in front of me! I stumbled and fell on my back side. "Oof! Hey! Did you have to do that!" My voice was so high and squeaky. "No." "Then why did you do it?" "Because your reaction was so funny! Besides, that's what you get for trying to hide from your fate! Te he!" Mew was giggling again, and her te-he's were getting really annoying. Deciding to just get it over with, I braced myself and looked down.

I was tiny. I was in a sitting down position, but it was clear that I was definitely not my usual 4'6". I looked back up at mew, and realized that I was head taller than her at most! I looked down again. My clothes were gone, replaced with a pair of blue and white striped pajamas and my feet were covered with small white socks with Eevee heads on them. I held my hands up to my face. They were still my hands, but they were smaller, and when I put them together, I found that they were a little softer too.

"Well...maybe this isn't so bad. I can still talk..." "True. Ok then, let's make the most of those five minutes! And before you say that just seeing yourself as a 3-year-old is enough, that's barely any different from keeping your eyes closed, so it still doesn't count." **Ouch.** "Ok, so how do I get rid of them?" "Just look around and pick something!" Then I noticed that the room we were in had changed too. It was a nursery, and there were toys lying all over the place!

"You don't mean..." "Yep! You have to play with the toys like a 3-year old for five minutes! If you don't, then you can stay like that until you do!" Ok, that was the last straw! "I'm not going to!" **Ugh**... **I sounded like a spoiled little baby there.** "Well, you are a baby." **Gr...** "Oh! I just realized that you won't have to play with the toys!" "Wha? Really?" "Yes. You see, according to your memories you were, well, kind of a late bloomer when it came to being potty trained..."

Then I remembered. I quickly checked under my pajama bottoms. Yep: I was wearing a diaper! "Well, it's not like it really matters." Mew said in her oh-so-innocent-yet-clearly-guilty voice. "As long as you haven't eaten anything in the last hour..." "Well that's a relie- Oh no..." My stomach suddenly felt heavy. **Oh Charity, next time I get cocky about something, you better smack me across the face...**

_Charity was in the kitchen, pacing in front of where the basement door was supposed to be. After Sam had reached the bottom of the steps they had disappeared. Suddenly, she heard someone speaking in her head: "Sam said that the next time he gets cocky he wants you to smack him across the face." She was surprised, and angry. "Mew! What did you do to Sam?" "Nothing serious, I promise. But let's just say that he had a small problem when he was younger." Charity knew what that meant all too well. "Sam... I hope you know what you're getting into..."_

"Come on Sam, don't you want to go to bed?" I didn't speak, I didn't move. We were back in the board room again, but I didn't look at anything except the floor. After my little 'accident' Mew had taken it upon herself to change my diaper. Needless to say, the experience of have a legendary Pokemon changing my diaper was by far one of the most miserable experiences of my life. At least Mew had counted it as the five minutes, so I was back to my normal 12 years old self, for however long. Despite this, I was stuck in a state of shock, and it was going to take more than the idea of going to bed to get me to move.

"Sam?" ... "Sam?" ... _Sam? _**Go away Mew. Can't you see I'm trying to prevent myself from having a heart attack? **_Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad, and it's over already. Look at the board: you can't possibly land on a green space again. _**But I might land on the white one. **_But you already have a white fate stored, so if you do land on it, you only have to face one fate. _**Yeah, and I might end up ruining my pants too. **_... Sigh, I guess that was a little too much for the first time... _**YOU THINK?**

_Sigh... _Mew hovered right in front of me. _Look Sam, it was a one time thing, ok? I didn't try and make you lose control of your bladder, but it happened all the same. That was because you decided to eat something before coming down here. Now you know not to do it again. _**And what's going to stop you from trying it yourself later? **_Look, I promise that if you don't eat anything before coming down, you'll never need a diaper change again. And I'll tell you what: you finish this up for today, and I'll give you tomorrow off. _"Really?"

_Look who can talk again! Well, not quite. I'm letting you stay upstairs tomorrow, but if you do then it doesn't count as one of the _ days. You still get a day off though, and I don't give those out very often. _I still didn't move. _Aw... Sam... _She put a paw on my shoulder. _It's fun to see your reactions to my games, but it's no fun if you face them all depressed and sad. _I was unmoved. _This is more serious than I thought. Here, maybe this will help. _I was suddenly filled with a feeling of happy pleasure. I hadn't felt this way for a very long time.

After a while, Mew's happy-therapy calmed me down, but I still didn't want to move. _Ok Sam, one last thing: no matter what I do to you, I promise that you'll always walk out of here the same way you did when you came in. I'm saying that with open honesty here, I promise I wouldn't try and find a loophole in this. Well, as long as you don't want me to anyway... "_Sigh... Ok Mew, I'll finish this up. "Thank you!" She flew around and kissed me on the cheek. It felt funky, but good.

"Ok, let's give this another go!" I rolled_. _**Come on, 2 or higher! ... a 4! YES**! "Ok, you reached the finish! Now let's see what cards you have to face. Oh, that's right, there's only one! A white card!" "Shoot, I forgot what was on it. Let me guess, you're not going to remind me what it was until it's started, right?" "Yep. Oh, don't look at me like that! You knew this was coming!" I had a look of absolute devastation on my face. **Sigh...** "Sounds good to me. Let's just get this over with already."

"Ok, but I don't want you to miss any of the show, so here!" Suddenly, I was surrounded by mirrors. "One last thing so we don't miss anything-" "Hey!" All my clothes disappeared, except my underwear thank goodness. "What's this all about?" "OK, here we go!" I got that feeling of lightness again. This time however, my eyes didn't start to sway. "Ok, Mew, what are you doing?" I felt a tickle on my arm, so I rubbed it. As soon as I did, I froze up. My arm felt fuzzy! I looked at it, and saw that it was covered in yellow fur! "WHA? What was on that card?" "It was a Pikachu card, silly! It means that you have to be a Pikachu for fifteen minutes!" The fur and tickling began spreading at an alarming rate. "Why didn't I see this coming?"

In seconds, my entire arm, hand, and half of my chest were covered with the yellow fur. Seeing that it was easier to follow in the mirror in front of me that watch it spread, I followed it from there. In only a minute or two, my entire body was covered in yellow fur, except for two small brown stripes on my back, red spots on my checks, and black tips on my ears. There was even fur inside my underwear, but let's not get into detail there. I rubbed the fur on my chest. The sensation of having my fur rubbed felt so good.

The next change was my ears. They felt like they were being tugged, not painful, but still a definite pulling sensation. I watched in fascination as they started stretching, and getting pointed. "Hey Mew, can I ask you something?" "Sure, what?" "Why is it amusing for you to watch me get changed around in weird ways?" My ears were now definitely Pikachu ears, and my voice now sounded rather loud. The tugging feeling increased as they started moving to the top of my head, parting my still black hair as they went.

"The same reason you like writing: it's a hobby." "That's not much of a reason." My ears were now 100% Pikachu. When I replied in a depressed tone, my ears went down. "Still..." Now my ears perked up, and let me tell you, that was quite a thing to feel. The changes moved to my hair, causing it to start turning yellow like the rest of me, though it still had that small tuft that stuck out no matter how hard I tried to comb it down in the morning. "I'm not just interested in these two things, age changing and transforming."

The next thing to go were my hands. The hands themselves kind of squished into themselves, and my fingers got a little stubby, though sharper. "There are a lot of other things I like..." Next my toes went. The two toes on each far end of my feet melted together with their neighbors while the middle toes got fatter leaving me with 3 toes on each foot.

"and of course there are a little less than 500 Pokemon I can use..." Then I felt my feet getting rounder. When they were finished, my feet were basically Pikachu paws. By this time I had started shrinking, and I had dropped about a foot now. "And I can add twists to everything..." The next thing was by far the weirdest. My tail started growing. At first it felt like my back was stretching, like you feel if you pushed your arms up to stretch, except it kept going, and the area right above my behind started to feel like a worm was wiggling out of me.

Looking at the mirror behind me, I saw that a small stub was starting to stick out right above my underwear. As it got longer, it grew brown fur and got fatter. It kept on growing until with a snap and a feeling of snapping (you know, like when you bend down on your knees too quickly), it bent downward, but the tail behind the bend grew strait, and started growing yellow fur. After a while, it snapped again, and again, and again, so that by the time the stretching feeling was gone, I had a fully grown Pikachu tail sticking out of me.

I reached back to feel it, but found that it was impossible for me to reach for it without my body twisting with me. During this whole time, my body had slowly been changing from a human's build to a Pikachu's, and by now it was as round as any Pikachu's. "Oh, and of course we'll be playing games most of the time..." My legs went next, pulling in on themselves, and making me lose my balance as with a snap I was switched from two legs to four legs, although it didn't change to the point where I couldn't stand back up again.

By now I was the same size as a Pikachu as well, and the only thing left to change was my face. Before it did: "Hey mew, (my voice went incredibly squeaky) how dop pikmok spika?" "Just listen to yourself silly! Te he!" "Pika? ...PIKA? PIKACHU?" I couldn't speak English anymore! My eyes turned deep brown, and my vision got a little duller as colors paled a bit so that the world had a grey shade to it. Then my nose turned black, and as I put one hand on it found that it was wet and cold. Suddenly, my whole face started stretching out into a small muzzle. When that was over, the only thing left in the mirror was a Pikachu looking back at me.

Mew was giggling out of control again. "Pikachu pikachu! Pika?" **Why can't I understand the words coming out of my mouth? **"Because a human can't understand what a Pikachu says silly!" That sent her into another round of giggles. **But I'm a Pikachu! Shouldn't I be able to understand now? **"No, because you're not done yet!" Then I felt a sudden jolt run through my body, followed by a strong tingle at my cheeks. **Oh, how could I forget these? **I reached up and touched my new electric sacs, only to zap myself. "piw! Puh?, I cap understind myselk! Well, sorta."

And then the changes were done, and the lightness left, leaving me feeling rather heavy again, although this time I could feel my tail. I shook my body a little, causing it to wobble back and forth, and I could feel muscles that I never had before moving at the base of my tail. I tried focusing on those new muscles, and I managed to wag my tail, just a little bit. "Whoa... I'm a Pokemon!" "Yes, and a really cute one at that! Te he!" I didn't think it was possible for me to blush when my cheeks were already red, but I'm positive I was blushing.

"Ok, so what do I have to do as a Pokemon in order to leave?" "Well... that depends." "Depends on what?" "On what you want to do." ... "What are my options?" "Well, for now, you have three." ... "What are they, and while I'm at it, what does each mean?" "Te he! Good one! Ok, the first is simply be in what-ever-Pokemon-you-are's natural environment, fighting a battle with a random Pokemon, or you can play a game with some other Pokemon."

The idea of battling terrified me, and I didn't trust myself with other Pokemon, so... "Natural Environment it is!" The room around me began to melt again, but this time in a way that made me dizzy, so I closed my eyes, and waited for the sound of the place rebuilding itself to stop...

_Charity couldn't understand it. Sam had only been down there for 10 minutes when the door reappeared. What in the world had Mew done to Sam that involved his late blooming and only took ten minutes? When the door opened, Sam looked like he was about to faint. In fact, as soon as he was outside the doorway, he DID faint. Charity was furious. "MEW! What in the world did you do to this boy!"_

_"Nothing... he was just having so much fun he fell asleep. I just carried him up the stairs. Psychically of course! Te he!" "This is serious! Why, if it wasn't for his father..." "You'd fight me? Oh come now, you of all Pokemon should know that you can't! Remember what happened last time?" "That's what I'm worried about. The victim was 25 last time. Sam's just a 12 year old boy! He can't handle as much as the last one!"_

_"I know, that's why I went easy on him today." "Well let me tell you something: you better keep on 'going easy' for the rest of this week, or so help me, I'll call HIM!" ... "You wouldn't dare, I can tell." "Grr..." "All the same, I was already on planning that before he even accepted. Don't worry, I promise I won't push him too hard. You know how I never take back a promise." "Yes, and that's what worries me the most." Charity picked Sam up, and carried him to his room._

_As he was carried, Sam dreamed of what he had experienced as a Pokemon: the openness, the freedom, the feeling of absolutely no problems to worry about... it was precisely what he had been looking for in life for years. He had run around, climbed trees, and laid in the sun. He was having so much fun, he didn't realize he was putting off going back to his own life to feel that freedom. Only when exhaustion caught up to him did he leave._

_He wanted to feel it again, but deep down, he felt that it was something that was not going to happen again for quite a while, if ever again. He didn't know it, but that experience was not just something that he desired deep down, but one he would find to be of the utmost importance one day..._


	4. Day 2: Have a Drink

**Day 2: Have a Drink**

"Thank you, have a nice day." I said.

"You too." The customer left the shop.

"Sigh..." I sat back down on my stool. As a 12 year old, the only work I could find besides baby-sitting and grass cutting was working at the local general store. I was a cashier, and my shift went from 6:00 in the morning to 1:00 in the afternoon. Needless to say, it was really stressful getting up that early in the morning 6 days a week. And on top of that, I had to face Mew last night.

My mind drifted again, this time to what I experienced as a Pikachu. **I can't remember... Probably because of Mew or something, but I do know that there was something about it that was so... so... what? I can't even remember what that feeling was! Well, it has to be something important... the question is should I try to face it again, or not go there again? Hm... **

"SAM!"

"Wha- huh?"

I looked up to see the face of my boss, Mr. Dendron, towering over me. Now, he was a good man, but he took business very seriously. If he thought I was sleeping on the job I was so dead... "Sam, are you alright?" He asked.

"Well, yeah." I said.

"I'm serious." He pressed.

"And so am I." I responded.

"Oh... I see... so you're father's still ok then?" He asked.

"Huh?" I gasped.

"Sigh... look Sam, for a 12 year old, you're one of the best cashiers I've ever hired. You never complain, you never mumble, and you have yet to make a mistake, but you've been kind of... out of things. The only thing that could make you like this is if you're father's condition was getting serious. Is everything ok at home?"

"Well..." I had promised myself not to tell anyone about Mew. It would just make life way too complicated.

"You see, he's gone into a coma." I said.

"Oh dear... Is he alright?" He asked.

"He's still alive if that's what you mean, but it's going to be a while before he wakes up again. If he wakes up that is." I'm a horrible liar. Not only because I'm terrible at coming up with believable stories, I just flat out hate lying. That in mind, the best I can do is tell half-truths, though I'm rather good at those.

"I see... well... Sam... I've been thinking..." He said.

**Oh no, this can't be good... **

"I think you should take some time off." He said.

...

"WHAT?" I yelled.

"I'm not heartless, and I can tell already that until he wakes up again you're going to stay like this, so I want you to stay home and keep an eye on him. And before you say that you need the job to pay for house and home, it's only going to be for 3 days, and I'll provide you with enough food to keep you, your dad, and your partner alive and well."

"She's not my partner." I said with a sigh.

"She's still family. Now take off that uniform, and go home." He said.

I did as he asked. He's my boss after all; I had to take some time off even if I didn't want to. Though I did want to; not for the reason he thought though. As I made my way through town, my thoughts drifted back to my father's condition. Apparently, Mew was keeping her end of the bargain. Before I had gone down last night his chest barely rose at all as he breathed ever so lightly, but when I woke up this morning, I found that his breathing was better, and his chest now rose twice as high; a definite sign of improvement.

Despite all this, I couldn't help but think that I was missing something. **Mew knew dad from somewhere, and apparently he asked her a favor. Plus, Charity knew about her, but she only knew what she could tell from outside the cave where dad found Mew. Is there a bigger picture that I'm missing? hm... I don't like this; too complicated. It all seems to revolve around one event that took place when my father was 25 years old...**

_Charity couldn't believe it. After all he'd gone through last night (he'd told her when he'd woken up), he was going to face it again! _

_"Seriously Sam! You need a break! If you keep pushing yourself too hard to save your father, then what's going to be left of you when this is over?" _

"I don't know, and right now I don't care." He answered.

_"SAM! Mew is offering you a day off! For the love of Lugia TAKE IT!" She said._

"What would be the point?" He asked.

_"Huh?" _

"I'm going to have to face it anyway, I know what to expect, at least to the point where I don't have to worry-"_ SMACK!_

"OW! What was that for!" He said, rubbing his face.

_"You wanted me to slap you in the face if you ever got cocky again." _

"I never told you that!" He yelled.

_"No, but Mew did. And I'm telling you: if you have a day off, take it. You have nothing to lose, nothing to gain. Even if you don't go downstairs today, your father is going to be perfectly ok. And you will not be given any favors if you go tonight." _

"There is something to lose: experience." He said.

_"Huh?"_

"Look, if I put this off, I'll be prepared to take this once every two days. If I want to be able to face doing this for many days in a row, I'm going to have to start now, or I'm going to have to face several days finishing up even worse than I did today. If I want to get in a rhythm of things, I'm going to have to hit the ground running, and keep going even if I stumble. Are we clear on this?"

_... _

"Charity?" He asked.

_"Sigh... I've heard those words before. And every time you say something like that it ends up in disaster. With this one, it's going to result in way more than a broken leg."_

"I know, but that's precisely why I'm going tonight." He said.

..._... _

_"I can tell you're going to do this no matter what I say, right?" _

"Pretty much, yeah." He said with a shrug.

_"Just be careful not to push yourself. It's the biggest mistake anyone could make in this situation..."_

I took a deep breath, and turned to face the basement door. **Ok Mew, I know you can hear me, so I'll get to the point. **

_I'd LOVE for you to come down today. In fact, I was kind of hoping you would!_ I heard her answer.

The door opened, and I went inside, just to find that the room was already set up into a giant swimming pool. **If you're planning on turning me into a fish...**

_Sorry, I was in the middle of my 400 meter back stroke. This isn't what I have planned for you._

**Whew. **I started down the stairs.

"Since when did a legendary Pokemon start participating in the Olympics?" I asked.

_Since always. We legendaries have Olympics of our own. I can't tell you anything else, or somebody might try to capture us all at once!_ She replied.

"You sound like that's just a game. Isn't being captured worth a LITTLE concern?" I asked.

_Who said you had to be serious about something to be concerned about it? _

"Fair enough." I said.

I reached the bottom of the stairs, and closed my eyes. _What's the matter? _She asked.

"I had nightmares all night about my room walls melting into nursery walls. I don't need to give my sub-conscious more ammo to hit me with." I answered.

_Alright, I'll give you that one. Ok__, you can open your eyes now. _

I did, and found the two of us in the exact same emptiness I saw when I first came down here, except for a small counter with 3 small bottles on it.

"Here Sam, have a drink." She said.

I walked up to the counter, and saw that all three were color coated: blue for one, green for another, and white for the third.

"Here's how this game works: you have to take 10 sips from any of these bottles. Whichever bottle you chose, the more you'll change into whatever fate was set for it. Remember, the only thing the color tells you is the type of fate." She said.

"So basically it's a matter of deciding how far I want to go with each. But why ten sips of the different bottles? Why not just one whole bottle?" I asked.

"Simple: each bottle only has 8 sips in them." She said.

"I find that hard to believe. These bottles look barely big enough for one." I said.

"It's so I get to see the whole process one step at a time, which is the best kind! You're right, there's only one sip in each bottle, but after you sip it, I refill it for the first seven times. Simple as that." She said.

"Ok, so what happens after I pick?" I asked.

"I give you a random challenge, and depending on what you picked, it will either really easy, or embarrassing!" She answered.

"I can understand the easy part, but why embarrassing?" I asked.

"Well, if what you chose is makes it impossible to complete the challenge, I get to play with you as I see fit for 5 hours." She gave me a your-going-to-regret-doing-that-but-I'm-going-to-enjoy-it look, and I decided to heed it.

"Ok, I know what the green and white bottles will do. The green one will change my age, and the white one will turn me into a Pokemon. Do I want to face those fates again, or do I want to find out what the blue one is?" I decided that I'd likely have to find out later in worse conditions, I decided to find out what the blue one did for one sip. It tasted like blue-raspberries.

"Being a little bold now, aren't we?" She said.

"Just finding out what it is." I said.

I was filled with another feeling of lightness, but then it was gone, and I hadn't changed at all. For a moment I wondered what had happened, but then I noticed the counter was up to my chest. It had been up to my waist two seconds ago.

"Ok... so blue means size change..." Mew gave me a confused look.

"You seem rather calm about having just lost a few inches." She said.

"I know, but compared to being turned into a 3 year old, this in nothing." I responded.

"Unless you drink enough that you shrink down to the size of an insect..." She said.

Ok, now I was worried about the blue bottle.

I wasn't looking forward to drinking from the green bottle, but I knew that if I did drink from it I could just settle for being turned completely into a Pokemon. Besides, it's still going to have the same effect as the blue one, but less drastic. So, despite my newly developed phobia of getting younger, I drank from the green bottle. It tasted like Apple Juice.

"How do you decide what the flavor is for every bottle?" I asked as my body started shrinking again.

"Simple: color. Raspberries are sometimes blue, apples are sometimes green... and you'll have to find out on your own what white tastes like." She answered.

"Fair enough." I said.

The counter top was up to my shoulders now. I was probably about 10 years old now, and a little shrunken. I had to reach up to put the bottle on the counter.

"I think I'm going to have trouble here if I shrink again." I said.

"If you do, then the counter will drop down with you. It wouldn't be fair if you had to drink whatever bottle you chose that shrunk you down past the counter."

I gave her a puzzled look. "Just because you're my toy doesn't mean I can't be fair about my games now does it?" She asked. "I guess not..." I answered.

I grabbed the white bottle and took a sip, though now the bottle had to be held by my whole hand and it took more than a sip to empty it. It tasted like milk.

**Tell me that doesn't mean... **

I felt a stretching sensation in my ears again, but this time instead of just growing larger and pointed, they also grew brown fur.

**Whew... Ok, how many Pokemon do I know that have brown pointed ears? **As they started moving to the top of my head again I put a hand to where they were a moment ago.

Humans are such pathetic creatures. We take that something for granted. Let me tell you, feeling the side of my head with nothing there but a sideburn was almost as creepy as having a tail yesterday. Even more so because other than the ears and my size I was still completely normal. "Ok, three down, seven to go. You've tried one sip from each, so now you have to choose which of the three fates you want to suffer the most from." She said.

"I think I've already decided." I said.

"Suit yourself." She said.

I took another sip from the bottle in my hand. Still tasted like milk. The next thing to change was my tail. But the thing is, this time I had clothes on. "Huh?" As the pressure built in the seat of my pants, I saw it starting to bulge out. I think I figured it would be smart to pull my pants down, but before I had a chance: RIIP! The next thing I knew, I had a hole in the back of my pants and underwear. A long bushy tail stuck out of it.

"Oh man..." I groaned.

"Te he! You have a hole in your pants! You have a hole in your pants! Te he!" She giggled.

"Grr... you better fix this when this is over. I can't afford to buy a new pair of pants every other day!" I snapped.

"Te he! Ok, but not 'till it's over! 'Till then, you're going to have to deal with it!" Seeing that my body and arms were still human, I reached back and was able to grab my tail. It was so weird: the tail felt soft to my hand, and my hand felt heavy to my tail. Also weird was that I could feel with my tail, which to my human mind that never had a tail until now (except for 15 minutes yesterday), it felt like I was feeling something that was outside my body. I started petting it, and it felt really good.

Looking back, I saw that it was covered in brown fur except for its white tip. "Let me guess, I'm turning into an Eevee, right?" I asked.

"Impressive. Able to tell what Pokemon it is after only two sips." I said.

"It's kind of obvious you know." I took another sip. This time my mane grew out, but it felt different than just growing fur. It felt like plants were growing out of my neck! "Whoa..." I could actually see it growing out and feel it push against my shoulders. When it was finished, I had to push it back in order to see the rest of my body it was so big.

"Ok, you're half way there! Now what are you going to do?" She asked.

"Keep drinking from this one." I answered.

"Aw... come on, I like watching you get younger!" She said.

"Yeah, but I don't. You knew from the moment you presented the game to me this was what I was going to chose." I said.

"Doesn't mean I can't hope for something different." She responded.

"Whatever." I took another sip. This time, the fur grew out, and again, I was wearing my clothes this time, so as it grew over me, I started getting really hot. Oh, and they made my fur really uncomfortable too.

Seeing this, I decided to cut my losses and take my clothes off. Well, all except my underwear of course. As I starting to remove the clothing, it suddenly disappeared. "Don't want you to waste your time with those silly things. Sam, I've been meaning to ask you: why do human insist on wearing those stupid thing? It makes sense in the winter when it's cold out, but in summer when it's hot without them? Why bother?" She asked.

...

"Er... Mew, how old are you?" I asked.

"50,000. Why'd you ask?" She answered.

"I meant as a living being. I know you've been alive for who knows how long, but-"

"Oh! Hm... seven?" She answered.

"Then, (ahem) you'll just have to wait till you're older." I said.

"Aw... every toy I get tells me the same thing, or that they don't know! WHY?" She asked the sky.

I raised an eyebrow. "Can't you just read someone's mind on the matter?" I asked.

She just shrugged. "Long story, but I can't. Kinda one of those 'special cases.'"

I took another sip, and this time it was my face that changed. My nose itched, and when I scratched it I found that it cold and wet again.

"Here." Mew handed me a mirror, but at this point I didn't really need it because my face started to, literally, stick out in front of me. I put a hand up to touch it, and I felt it pushing out under my hand. I opened my mouth as it grew, and saw my teeth growing out, getting longer and sharper. My eyes changed into black dots, changing my vision again, although some of it was taken up my muzzle.

"Mew, seeing that you're the ancestor of all Pokemon, why do Eevees have fangs if they can't learn any bite moves?" I asked. I found that I could still speak English, but it sounded very strained, like I was talking with food in my mouth or something.

"Well, it's sort of ironic... but Eevees were originally predators, but as time passed the species grew friendlier and friendlier, to the point where they didn't use their fangs anymore, so they forgot how to use them." She answered.

"That doesn't sound very believable." I said.

"No, but you didn't ask for the truth now did you?" She asked.

"I'll take that as an I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it." I answered.

I sipped again, and noticed a small pressure coming from my feet. Before long, it forced me up onto tiptoes. I looked down and watched (because Mew had removed my shoes and socks with the rest of my clothes) as my feet bent upwards and stretched. My toes got fatter as my pinkies disappeared, and small claws popped out. I suddenly felt great pressure underneath what little of my feet were touching the ground, and it pushed until I picked my feet up one after the other, and when I put then down I felt something push down. I had pads, and that meant I had paws.

My hands began changing too, as claws and pads formed on them, but then it stopped.

"Huh? Why didn't my hands change all the way?" I asked.

"Simple: if they did, you'd have no way of drink from the bottle. They'll change all the way when you shift from two legs to four. Ok, you have two left. What are you going to do with them?" She asked.

My first impression was to finish the bottle in my hand, but then I had a thought: **what if what Mew had in mind involved reaching up high? Even if I shrunk a little, wouldn't it be more useful if I could stand up? There are two sips left in this bottle, but what are those two changes?**

"Voice and four legs. I'm not telling which is first. And before you say it, if you lost your hands you'll be on the ground, so you'll be able to pick the bottle up with your teeth and chug it down." She said.

I thought about my options here for a while, and decided to take two more years off my life. I put the white bottle back and reached for the- "Huh? ... I'm color blind!" I said.

"Duh. You have Eevee eyes!" She answered. **Shoot... Should have seen this coming...**

I could tell white was white, but the other two were different shades of gray. **Ok, think: where did you put down each bottle after you drank it? **I couldn't remember no matter how hard I tried. "Well, guess my only options here are to trial and error, or take my chances with the white bottle again..." I mumbled to myself.

"I vote trial and error!" Mew said.

"Your vote is unheeded." I said.

"Aw..." She moaned.

"Still... I like the odds in trial and error better, so I'll do it." I said with a sigh.

"Yay!" She yelled.

I grabbed the darker looking grey, and took a sip. For some reason, there was no flavor. **Let me guess... you're not letting me stop with one. **_Yep! Te he!_ I started getting smaller again. After I stopped, the top of my head was at the counter, or at least it was until it lowered to match my new height.

"Hey wait a minute... How am I supposed to know whether I just shrank or lost two years?" I asked.

"You're supposed to pay attention to the color on the bottle." She answered.

"I can tell that you're not going to help me with this." I said.

"Of course! What do ya take me for?" She responded.

Then I remember something: at age 8, I had a scar from a bicycling incident on my left arm. If it was there, I hit the right bottle! Then I realized how useless that was: My left arm was covered in fur, and my hands had claws on them, so there was no way I could look for it.

"Ugh..." Then I had an idea.

"Hey Mew, can you show me how tall I am?" I asked. "Sure. 2' 6". She answered.

**Ok, so I've shrunk two feet, that's 24 in. Let's see... I think the equation I'm looking for is x plus 2y equals 24.**

**8 of both is one option, but that would mean it doesn't matter which one I chose. 6, 6, and 12 might work, but that doesn't seem right. 4, 4, and 18? Nah**...

I spent a good 15 minutes debating the odds of how much each bottle will shrink me, but as far as I could tell, the bottle in my hand (which was now bigger than my hand) was going to cause the exact same thing as the other, so I just forget the whole thing and just drink what was in my hand again.

I shrank again, and as I shrank I found that the bottle in my hand was growing too big to hold with one hand, so I had to reach over and grab it with the other.

"Ok! You're done! Now for the results. Hm... It would seem that you're a six year old, slightly shrunken Eevee that has hands, can stand upright, and can talk." She said.

**Ok, so the bottle in my hand was the green one. Well, at least I was potty train by age 6. **

"Now for the challenge!" She said. And the empty space started to become a room again, and I closed my eyes again.

_Ok, you can open now. _She thought at me. I did, and found myself in a nursery again, but this time instead of toys lying all over the place, there were boxes lying all over the place.

"Ok, you're challenge is to find the box with a picture of me in it. You have 6 hours to look through every box before I play with you." She said.

"Six hours? That's way more than enough time to find it, even if I took my time. What's the catch?" I asked.

"Well, if you had drunk the whole blue bottle, you would have to run as fast as you could to open half of them. Oh, and the boxes can't be opened. You have to push them to the spot in the corner and it'll open on its own. Oh, and when it does open, if the picture isn't inside it, whatever's inside it will affect you for 10 minutes! There are 20 boxes, 19 of which are dummies, so if you end up picking every one except the right one, you only have two hours and 50 minutes!" She said.

"I still don't see what's so hard." I said.

"Then you'll see once we start." She said.

...

"When do we start?" I asked.

"NOW!" She yelled.

A timer appeared in the corner of my vision and started ticking down, like in a video game. "What? How'd you-"

"I'm hypnotizing you so that you see it. Now go, go go!" She said.

I looked in the corners, and saw the spot. It was basically a square of carpet with yellow lines around it. My first idea was to push the furthest one to the spot first, but then I noticed that that was impossible because of the other boxes in the way, so I decided to start with the one closest.

I ran as best I could on my paws, leaned against it as best I could without feet to hold my balance, and started pushing. Then I realized what was so hard about it: the boxes were HEAVY! I put all my weight into it, but it only moved a few inches. "Why is this so hard?" I asked. Then I realized how the bottles I chose were important. The smaller I got, the more I had to travel, the more Pokemon, the harder to find my center of balance, and the younger I was, the less muscle I had!

**I'm only 6 years old! Is it any wonder that I can barely move this? **I looked back at all the boxes in the room. The six hours Mew gave me suddenly seemed like nowhere near enough time. I'm not the kind of guy who panics, but I sure came close there. I started to push the box again, but this time I tried to find a way to put my whole weight into it. After 5 minutes of adjusting, I found it, and the box began to move so well that it was in the spot before I had to take even one break.

The box popped open, and a rain of confetti popped out, but nothing else happened.

"Ok, what's the 'effect'?" I asked.

Then I realized that the confetti wasn't stopping, and before long it was up to my ears! I tried to move through it, but I couldn't see a thing! Then suddenly: "Oof!" I walked smack dab into a box. I reached through the confetti and found that the top wasn't open. Before I started pushing it though, I pulled myself onto it to see how deep the confetti was. My ear tips couldn't even break through the top.

**Ok, how am I still able to breathe in this? **

_Are you questioning my logic again? _**...** _Te He! Better get going, my confused little Eevee! _

**Sigh...**

I jumped down (though it was more of a dig than a jump) and started pushing the box in what I thought was the right direction. A while after I started, the confetti vanished all around me, making me lose my balance fall to the floor. That's when I noticed that I had been pushing the box in the wrong direction, making it so I had to put more time and effort into moving it to the spot! My timer said 5:40 to go. **This is going to be a nightmare...**

And I was right. Every time I got a box to the spot something, between complete darkness to a steady flow of syrup, popped out and always managed to either prevent me from moving the next box, or making me push it in the wrong direction. This pattern repeated itself over and over, until at last there were only two boxes left, but I only had 30 minutes left. Of course by now I was exhausted, and I could barely walk over to the next one, let alone push it.

I knew that I only had one more shot: I either had to pick the right box this time, or I was history. Seeing the two choices, I decided to go with the closer one because I'd have less pushing to do, and there was no way I was going to be able to handle both. I grunted, wheezed, and breathed impossibly hard, but I finally managed to push it to the spot. **If this isn't it I'm finished.**

The box popped open... and nothing happened...

"What the_-" _

_Didn't I tell you to watch your language? _

**Look who finally decided to say something! **

_That's because this is the empty box trap! The last box is the one with my picture in it! Can you make it with nothing to hold you back? _

I looked at my timer: 15 minutes. Groaning, I started back to the last box. As I hobbled over, I mentally slapped myself. It was the furthest box. The one I had wanted to push when I started this thing. How stupid a thing to forget can you get?

I reached the box, and started pushing, making it about 3 inches before I had to stop and breath.

**There is no way I'm going to make it... **

_Aw... come on! It's no fun if you give up! _That was the last thing I needed for inspiration, the sound of Mew's voice in my head sent a river of fear though me: What would she do if she could mess with me any way she saw fit? That fear drove me on. That fear pushed aside my exhaustion.

I was closing in on the spot, but my timer had reached one minute! I pushed as hard as I could, fear driving me on. I was running on pure adrenaline right there. It was a race between the distance to the spot and the time left on the timer. 3 feet, 40 seconds...2 feet, 22 seconds... 1 foot, 13.5 seconds... 6 inches, 6 seconds... 2 inches, 1.5 seconds. I gave one last burst of energy, pushing against the box with all my might and weight...

_30 SECONDS LATER..._

"And I'm telling you for the last time, there is absolutely no I should let you go with being one centimeter short of the spot!" She yelled at me.

"And I'm telling you there is no way I'm going to let you use me as your toy for being only a centimeter short!" I yelled back.

I don't know what the rest of the world would do in my position, but I really didn't care that moment that I was arguing with the being who controlled the room I was in, currently had an advantage over me, and was the only being in the world who could turn me back to normal. I know common sense goes against it, but I argued all the same.

"When you came down here this morning, you knew you were going to be my toy! Why are you arguing about it now, after you're deep into it? And I gave you this day off! Why didn't you take it?" She yelled.

"Because I'm a stupid human, ok! We tend to ignore our instincts when we feel even slightly capable of handling a situation!" I said. I think we argued like this for several hours, and about half way through I lost track of what we were arguing about.

Eventually, our tempers snapped, and we both huffed off and went to opposite sides of the room. I just sat there and mumbled to myself, while Mew floated and popped bubbles that were coming out of the ground. We were both clearly in bad moods. After a while, I began to calm down, and started to look at things from a different perspective. **If Mew's been alive for 50,000 years... she must have run out of things to do... **I turned to look at her bubble popping. **She's only letting her anger out on them. The bubbles give her absolutely no satisfaction. **I turned away again.

"Sigh... Mew?" She didn't look back.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"Well... what exactly do you have in mind?" I asked.

Now she turned to face me. "Well... I want to show you a new kind of fate. That's all." She said.

...

"Maybe I should have told you that it was nothing really serious, but I didn't want to ruin the look on your face when you tried to comprehend what was happening to you..." She said.

"... I... I think I understand." I said.

"Hm?" She gave me a puzzled look.

"Well... you did tell me you're 50,000 years old, and I'm sure you've done everything in the book to amuse yourself, you probably even reached the point where changing yourself was boring." I said.

"Yeah, so?" She asked.

"Well... I've been thinking... maybe you should just try to be a little open with me, instead of playing with me at every opportunity. It's been my experience that if you soak up the best of everything the moment you can, you'll get tired of it. If you stretch things out a little, then you'll find the experience to be more refreshing later on than if you had done it over and over again. Why not try something new now, so that the old idea's still fun later?" I asked.

...

She flew right in front of me and tilted her head.

"I like that idea. Thanks Sam, I've been waiting 400 hundred years for someone to tell me something like that." She said.

She kissed me again on the tip of my nose, which really tickled because it was still an Eevee's nose.

"Ok, so are you willing to find out what the new fate is? Its color is yellow." She said.

"Yeah, I think so, but you're going to have to turn me back to normal first." I said.

"Ok!" She said.

"Whoa!" The room started spinning as I grew larger, and as I grew, my fur and Eevee body faded along with it. Mew didn't give me my clothes back, but I wasn't surprised. "Ok, here we go!"

I felt really light again, but this time it wasn't just a description, I really did feel lighter! I felt pressure building up inside me... but nothing happened. "Uh... Mew? What are you doing?" Then I noticed my voice seemed to echo a little, like I had breathed Helium.

**Wait... didn't I read somewhere where symptoms like this happened? **

Then I remembered: it was that story I read when I was little about a boy who wished to be able to fly and blew himself up with an air pump! The pressure in me wasn't fading, it was getting more intense.

Before long, the pressure become so strong it started pushing my body outward!

"Ya! Mew! Is this really a kind of change?" I put my hands on my stomach, and felt it blowing out under my hands.

"Yep! This fate isn't just inflation though, it's any kind of change that results in you getting big and round!" She said.

**Ugh... **Then I heard a small pop, and I saw that the pressure had pushed my bellybutton outward!

"Yay!" Mew flew in front of me and poked it.

"You're not helping!" I said.

"Who said I was trying to help?" She said.

The internal pressure just kept on getting stronger, and my body just kept on getting bigger and bigger. After a while, I felt the pressure start to spread through the rest of my body.

"Oh no..." I moaned.

"Oh yes!" My arms started ballooning too, and the air within them pushed against my joints, forcing my hands away from my ever expanding belly and getting stuck pointing outward as if I were a scarecrow. My hands and fingers were next, turning my hands into round orbs as my fingers grew into smaller orbs. I couldn't even wiggle them anymore.

"Mew..." My voice was incredibly echoey now. "Shouldn't my underwear have ripped apart by now?" I asked.

"Yes, except that I made them elastic so it's going to take a little more before they tear!" "That's nob bobo-" My face went next, after my neck blew out so that it was as thick as my head. My cheeks blew out on their own, preventing me from speaking and forcing my eyes to squint a little. I couldn't bend down and see as my body grew ever bigger, but I sure could feel it, and the pressure was getting unbearable now.

My legs started blowing outward next, my thighs pushing each other apart as they grew, and before long I couldn't even move them. As they pushed themselves apart, my feet began rubbing against the floor, causing me to fall over, but I didn't fall very fast. I toppled over, but it was like I was in slow motion or something. I was so full of air, I was losing pounds by the second. Finally, just as the pressure became painful, it stopped, leaving me a giant ball of air-filled flesh. I couldn't move; my joints were unable to fight the pressure that had built up against them.

"Yay! Balloon time!" Mew started bouncing on my inflated body, taking care to purposely land on my belly button each time. I couldn't even open my mouth to protest. Every time she landed on me, it sent the pressure inside me bouncing around, causing my limbs to push out involuntarily and my head to bob forward. **Mew... **She didn't notice me; she was having too much fun.

Then she flew under me, and threw me up into the air, and much to my surprise, it took a good minute for me to come back down again.

**Mew... **She still didn't notice me, and began to bop me up every time I came down as if I were a volleyball.

**Mew! **She still didn't notice me.

**Sigh... guess I'm stuck like this until she decides to let me go. Might as well try and make the most of it... **I tried to drive out the thoughts about what had happened to me, and I tried to enjoy the feeling of being inflated, because I hated to admit it, but being full of air actually felt rather nice and comfy...

_Charity was surprised to see Sam in a good mood when he came back up that night. "Ok, who are you and what has Mew done to Sam?"_ She asked.

"Very funny Charity. I'm just happy that today wasn't a disaster like yesterday." He answered.

_"I don't believe you, but what else am I expected to do?" _She said.

"Thanks Charity." Sam made his way up to his room, but Charity stayed behind to mumble to herself.

_"I can't believe it. I'm seeing the exact same thing as last time..." _


	5. Day 3: An Unwanted Visitor

**Day 3: An Unwanted Visitor**

ZZZZ...

"CHANSEY!" Charity yelled.

"WHA!" I woke up screaming. I fell out of bed and hit the floor hard.

"Ow! Charity, what was that for?" I asked.

"Chansey chansey chansey!" Charity said franticly.

"WHAT?" I yelled. I jumped to my feet and started to dress as fast as I could. How could I have slept in today? How? It was the day that the town lawyer was coming to examine our situation! If he thought we needed help, we'd get huge discounts on our expenses! But if he thought we were bluffing in order to get out of paying our bills, the prices would go UP! **If he thinks we're faking this, we can kiss the house good bye...**

**30 minutes Later...**

"Well, that could have gone better..." I mumbled as the front door slammed shut.

"Chansey Chan." Charity said snidely. "Yeah, I probably SHOULD have unclogged the upstairs toilet BEFORE he demanded the brand of toothpaste we use." I said.

"Chansey Chansey Chan!" She yelled.

"Look, I know we probably didn't leave a good impression on him, but I mean, come on, can he really think we're faking this? I even showed how low dad's blood pressure was! So help me, if he thinks that this is a set up..." I said, but then paused.

"Chan?" She asked.

"Hm... then again, maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to sue a lawyer." I mumbled.

Charity didn't even bother to snap back at me.

"Ok, seeing that that's over with, I think I'm going back to bed." I said.

"Chan? Chansey?" She asked.

"Something in my gut's telling me that I'm in for a rough night with Mew. I'm gonna try to get a few z's before then. Besides, I told you she slows down time in there, and even if time's going faster in reality, my body still stays up WAY too late, figuratively speaking." I answered.

"Chansey Chansey?" She asked.

"Last January. It's amazing what a guy will do to get around writer's block, isn't it?" I asked.

"Chansey..." She said with a sigh.

"Yeah, but you never asked for the details, now did you?" I asked.

"Chan." She huffed.

"I'm going to check on dad." I said.

I took my time as I went up the steps, taking care to swat the attic chain as I went. It turns out Mew put the attic in the sloped roof about the stairs. I hadn't bothered to go up there yet, but I hadn't seen the point: all that was in there was useless junk anyway. I went into my father's room. He was definitely getting better, that much was obvious, but he was still in a coma, though I could hear his breathing without sticking my ear against his nose. His chest rose very noticeably, and his blood pressure, though still dangerously low, was going up.

"Sigh..." I huffed. I knelt in front of the bed on my knees.

"Dad... could you understand what I'm going though to save you, seeing as you've spent a good deal of time researching Mew? If so... I just hope you understand how I feel about it..." I said.

I knew he couldn't hear me in his condition, but I wasn't discouraged. Talking helped, and facing a Chansey that hated the idea of me getting so much as an inch shorter during Mew's 'playtime' was something I had been hoping to get avoid today.

That taken care of, I went back to my room and laid back down on my bed, not even bothering to get into my pajamas. Truth be told, the last thing I wanted to do was sleep. For the last two nights my dreams had been crazy. I think at one point I dreamed I was turning into a diaper shaped Pokemon balloon. Needless to say, after that I'd wanted nothing more than to never sleep again. That in mind, all I wanted to do was lay there, relax, and brace myself for what was to come.

**Ok... what's Mew going to throw at me this time? Now that she's including inflations, I'm going to have to be prepared for ANYTHING to happen... oh, who am I kidding? No matter what I prepare for, she's going to do something else! Mark my words, she's going to have another drinking game, but with a twist I'm not going to like, before the week's out... **

I debated with myself over things like that for hours. Finally, seeing that I was wasting my time, I got up and started writing again. **I really need to find a way to prepare for 'playtime', but how? **

_**That Night...**_

"Ok, let's see: nothing eaten in the last two hours, witty comments put together, and a hand mirror in my back pocket so I can keep track of everything that happens to me. Ok, I'm ready." I said to myself.

_You know, if you want to see yourself change so bad, you only have to ask and I'll get a full body mirror out for you. _Mew said.

...

**Man, you're good! **

_Thank you. Now get down here, I've been waiting all day to show you this one! _She said.

**Something tells me I'm not going to be so excited... **I put the mirror on the kitchen counter, and then made my way into the basement.

Strangely, this time the stairs had walls around them. Really nice looking ones with fresh paint.

_Why do you think anything with color is painted? _Mew asked.

"Because only two days ago, that WAS the only way to get color on your walls and roof." I answered.

_Fair enough I guess. Seriously, what's with you humans? _She asked. I saw that at the bottom of the stairs was a door. Looking at it, I saw bright green letters pai- on it: Mew's Candy Store.

**Candy Store? **

"Yep!" Mew said.

"Wha!" I jumped. Mew had appeared right behind me again.

"Would it be too much trouble for you to stop doing that?" I asked.

"Yep. Now in we go!" She said.

"Why do I even bother..." I mumbled as I went inside.

As far as candy stores go, I had to give Mew credit for making a rather original one. There was nothing but candy, but boy, was there a LOT of candy! Looking around, the entire room was full of candy. I couldn't even see an inch of wall. The roof was bare, but it looked like it was covered in syrup the way its brown and pink seemed to blend around.

"Oh man... is this a candy store or a candy storage?" I joked.

"Te he! Good one!" Mew giggled. I actually made an intentional joke!

"Ok, so what's the deal? I highly doubt you're going to make me eat all of this. Even if it would be tasty, I don't think I'd be able to handle it all." I said.

"I know. All you have to do is eat three pieces of candy." She said.

...

"Let me guess, each kind of candy will change me in a different way, right?" I asked.

"Yep! You only have to experience it for a few minutes though. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I slipped a new kind of change in here?" She asked.

"WHAT?" I yelled.

"Don't worry, you'll only have to face it if you pick it! Te he!" She giggled.

"Ugh..." I groaned.

I looked around, trying to decide what each piece of candy would do. Easier said than done, there were more kinds of candy than I knew existed! There was gum, taffy, licorice, pixie sticks, jawbreakers, gumdrops, lollipops, and so many others!

"How am I supposed to know what every piece of candy does?" I asked.

"You're not supposed to." Mew answered.

"What a surprise." I mumbled.

Finally, deciding just to go with it, I went with a lollipop. Of course, the only kind Mew had were those stupid giant multicolored one that they always sell at carnivals and amusement parks.

"I always hated these. You spend more money on it than a bottle of water, you lick it away, and by the time it's halfway done you're sick of the less than impressive flavor, and because it's so sticky you can't save it for later!" I said.

"Yeah, I know. But this is the only kind of lollipop that works with what it does." She said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"You'll see! Te he!" Mew giggled yet again.

With a deep sigh, I took the lollipop closest to me and took a lick.

"Hey, it tastes a lot better than the real things!" I said.

"Duh. Why would I make candy that tastes bad?" She asked.

"To drive me crazy?" I asked.

...

"Ok, so maybe there is a reason why I'd do it, but I still don't like the idea of bad tasting candy... except for black licorice. Ugh, I can't stand the stuff!" She said.

**Finally! Something that I like that Mew doesn't! **

"It's only a piece of candy. Now get licking! It won't count unless you lick away the whole thing!" She said.

I took another lick, and another, and another, but nothing happened. I kept licking until a small patch of white appeared, but nothing happened.

"Uh, Mew?" I asked. Then I noticed that Mew was giggling herself silly again.

"What?" I asked. Then I noticed that my words were coming out a little sloppily. I put a hand up to my mouth, but found that nothing had changed.

"Ok, what th-" I started, but then stopped when I hit the 's'. I tried again: "Ith thith theriouth?" I couldn't make an 's' sound. I reached into my mouth, and found that my tongue was huge! I stuck it out, and found that I could see it clearly without having to bend it up!

"Mew! What'th thith?" I asked.

"Te he! It's funny listening to you talk like that!" Mew said.

"Mew! Why is only my tongue changing?" I asked.

"Well, you see, some pokemon have parts that kind of 'stick out', like a lickitung's tongue, and while turning into one, people have a tendency to wonder when the stick-out will appear, so sometimes I like to just change that stick out part. It's so much easier to focus on everything that way! Besides, it's really funny to see Pokemon things on a human! Te he!" She giggled.

I decided right then and there not to finish the lollipop. **I don't care if it doesn't count, I'm not giving myself a giant tongue!**

"Aw, come on! Don't be a party pooper!" She said.

**What's wrong with that? Let me choose something else! **

**"**Sigh... guess I'm going to have to resort to this..." She said.

I suddenly felt my arm move up to my mouth, and my tongue lashed out to lick it, on its own! **Hey! **

"What? I never said I wouldn't use my psychic abilities this time!" She said.

**... I have GOT to start noticing these things... **

I could only watch in horror as with every lick my tongue got bigger and wider, and before long I could lick the lollipop without holding it right up to my mouth. Mew suddenly stopped making me lick the loli, and then I found out why: my tongue was now too big for me to fit in my mouth! Not moving it, it stuck out a bit!

"Mugulb!" I spurted out. I also couldn't speak anymore, and Mew was laughing so hard she was floating upside down. I tried to pull it back in, but then Mew took control of it again and it was licking away.

Seconds later, I felt my tongue starting to get a little heavy, and I had to shift my weight before it pulled me over! It didn't stop there though, it kept on getting bigger! Now I wasn't even holding the loli close to my head at all, and my tongue stretched out to lick it from a distance, giving me a good look at it. As it grew longer still, it started flapping against the loli, as if it was painting it. This caused saliva to flick out, and a small puddle had formed on the ground.

Then, my arm extended so that it was holding the loli away from me, but my tongue had no trouble reaching it. By now, I found that it was impossible for me to move my mouth, and as my tongue got thicker, it was being pushed open! The loli was almost gone now, but now my tonge was long enough to touch the floor, and it was so heavy I had to lean backwards just keep standing. Finally, it stopped, and my tongue flopped down on the ground, now soaking wet with saliva. It had to be around 4 feet long at least, and it was a foot thick at its widest point.

I found that my mouth was stuck open, like if I was trying to shove too much food into it at once. I couldn't even move it, nor could I stop the seemingly endless flow of saliva that was coming out of it. I reached up and grabbed my tongue, and found that the saliva was sticky, and that it was impossible for me to get a grip on it.

**How am I supposed to move this thing? **

_You have tongue muscles you know. _Mew said.

I gave it shot, and found that it moved rather easily, though my first upward movement sent in landing on top of me(and got saliva all over me).

**Ok, so what do I do now? **

"Well... I was thinking you put that tongue to some use! Here..." She said as she flew in front of me, holding a 10 FOOT LONG LOLIPOP!

**You can't be serious! **

"Ok, if you don't want to do it..." She said.

And then my huge tongue was licking away at it on its own again. The lollipop itself tasted good, and I found that my new tongue was really good at catching flavors, so it was 20 times stronger than anything I had ever tasted! Despite the fact that I had this huge thing sticking out of me, and I was by now drenched in sticky saliva, I couldn't help but enjoy myself at the powerful flavor...

_Charity had had it. That annoying attic chain swatted her in the eye every time she went up or down the stairs! It didn't help that her arms were too short to swat it out of the way. Deciding that enough was enough, she went into the kitchen, grabbed a pair of spatulas, and pulled the chain down. _

_"I'm going to go up there, pick out anything worth saving, and then I'm cutting off that stupid chain!" She mumbled to herself._

"Blah!" I spat as I took another sip of water before spitting it back into the sink Mew had provided me with. Here's the thing about a lickitung's saliva: it tastes AWFUL! They can't taste it themselves, but right after my tongue shrank back down to normal, I still had some left on it!

**Ugh... this is worse than that time I took that dare to drink a cup of soapy water... **

"You drank a cup of soapy water? You're braver than you act down here!" Mew exclaimed.

"At the time (gurgle, gurgle) I didn't know how bad soap tasted, so I thought it only meant the slippery feeling it would leave in my throat." I said.

"Fair enough, but serious, I tried soap once, and I think I can still taste it 200 years after I tried it." She said.

"They had soap back then?" I asked.

"I don't have to answer that." She said. I just shook my head.

I decided to just pick something with a strong flavor next so it would dull the taste in my mouth. Naturally, I went for the chocolate.

"Milk chocolate, peanuts, caramel, almonds, dark, white, chocolate covered sunflower seeds? No thank you. Hm... Oh! Mint! Perfect!" I said as I opened a piece and popped it in my mouth. Man, was that the strongest mint I ever tasted! I felt a sight pulling feeling coming from the top of my head.

"Ok, what does mint mean?" I asked.

"You'll see. It's not as drastic as the lollipop." She said.

"Whew." I sighed as I reached to feel what was coming out, and felt a giant leaf sticking out of my head!

...

"Ok Mew, where in your twisted ideas of logic did you get a Chikorita's leaf out of mint?" I asked.

"Well, I know what mint leaves look like, and they kind of look like a chikorita's leaf, and I couldn't come up with something better to represent mint." She said.

"Ok, but what am I supposed to do with this giant leaf sticking out of my head?" I asked.

It was finished growing; it had grown 4/5ths of the way down my back, and was wider than my body.

"Who said that the leaf's the only thing?" She said.

What-" I was cut off as with a small 'pop' as a seed/bud thing popped out of my neck, which felt very much like fast acting acne for my perspective, though one could probably argue how a bud popping out of your neck feels like.

I raised an eyebrow as several more 'seeds' popped out of me. "And how is THIS related to mint?" I asked.

"You really want to know?" She asked me in a you-do-not-want-to-get-your-way-here tone that sent a shiver down my spine so that despite how my mind was convinced there was no relation to be had, I didn't push it.

"Now... how am I going to play with you?" She asked herself as she put a hand to her 'chin' in a thoughtful manner.

"Come on Mew, we both know you already had this planned out before I even existed." I said.

"Aw... you're such a party pooper! Fine, if you just want it over with..." She said.

POOF!

...

"WHAT THE!" I yelled. I was buried up to my neck in dirt! My leaf was above the surface, causing it to stretch out behind me like a blanket or something. Looking up, I saw Mew hovering above me, wearing a Mew sized gardening suit and holding a watering can.

"HOW THE HECK CAN YOU GET SOME CRAZY GAME LIKE THIS OUT OF A CHIKORITA LEAF?" I screamed.

"What can I say? I'm inspired in the craziest ways." She said. Then she dumped the can's contents onto my head and moved aside so that a newly formed 'sun' could shine down on my leaf, which was now soaking wet.

"Better get photosynthesizing! I need a full ring of blooming flowers around your neck before I dig you out!" She said.

...

"Mew, how am I supposed to-" I started, but I got my answer is the form of what felt like, well, water flowing under my skin, energy and air being sucked into my leaf, them mixing in my head, and it all flowing to my 'buds'.

...

"Am I ever going to actually choose an EASY game for once!" I asked.

"You consider just 'standing' there and letting your body bloom hard?" She asked back.

"Ugh..." I groaned. I didn't even bother arguing. It's hard to argue when your brain's been momentarily replaced with chlorophyll, which didn't even remotely follow chikorita biology...

_Charity couldn't believe it: almost everything in there was worth keeping! _

_"Mew must have taken out all the junk, leaving all the gems to shine in here!" She said. There were scrapbooks, old photos, and even a radio that still worked! She also found all of Sam's mother's possessions, but they were still in their box. Charity didn't bother opening it. _

_"Let's see... what should I look at first..." She mumbled to herself._

"Ugh... how much longer is this going to take?" I asked.

"What's the matter? You need more water?" Mew asked back. Before I could even answer Mew dumped another can of water on my head.

"No, I mean that 1) I'm bored, 2) I can hear water moving in my head, and 3) my muscles are starting to cramp up!" I said. She flew in front of me with a perky smile on her face.

"1) you are NOT bored because you are fascinated from 2) the sensation of sugar being formed inside you which you should be enjoying, and 3) you don't have any muscles to feel sore from. Did you really think I'd forget something like that?" She asked.

...

"Then what the heck is my head attached to!" I asked.

"Do you really want to know?" She countered.

Suddenly: pop! One of my buds popped open into a flower! No sooner had I realized that, than it fell off my neck! I cannot BEGIN to describe what THAT felt like, but Mew seemed satisfied with it.

"Yay!" She cheered as she picked it up and held it up to my face. "See what wonderful things you can make when I give you a little helping push?" She asked.

...

"There are so many things I could argue about in that sentence, my photosynthesizing brain can't decide what to argue about first." I said.

"That's the idea! One flower down, all the rest to go!" She said.

"Ugh..." I moaned.

Then I noticed something... not all the sugar was going to the buds. It was flowing... somewhere... "Mew! Where is the sugar I make going!" I asked.

"And I'm going to tell you because...?" She asked. I gave her a good hard glare.

...

"Ok, plant sugar comes in handy, and I didn't want to miss an opportunity to get some." She answered.

...

"I... couldn't catch that..." I moaned. "I think my brain is getting slower with every second this goes on..."

_Charity hated to admit it, but Mew really did something she didn't have anything to complain about. There was absolutely nothing in the attic than should have been left in the basement, and after a small tally she noted that there was nothing important missing either. _

_"Sigh... guess that psychic trouble maker is good for something. She said. _

…

_"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be taking that back before I go to bed tonight?" She asked herself._

Pop! Pop! Pop! After several hours of sugar processing, I was down to only two flowers left to bloom. By then, it was all I could do to think solid words. Whatever was under the soil was likely bloating, and it sent my mind into a dizzy spell. If Mew thought I was enjoying it, she'd be... er... partly right. I WAS enjoying the drowsiness for some reason, but other than that weird feeling, I couldn't wait for it to be over.

Pop! "Only one to go!" She said.

**One... good... **

"Aw... is someone a little stuffed with self-made food?" She asked. "kum…quat…" I mindlessly mumbled. I couldn't have nodded even if I wanted to.

"Alright little planty, you can stop now." She said, right as- Pop! The last flower fell off my neck. "Ok, now to get you out!" She said.

She grabbed me by my leaf, and (likely psychically) yanked me out of the ground, to reveal that under my head was a humanoid formation of roots, all bloated to the size of logs!

"Now to get at all that sugar!" She said as she promptly yanked my head off of the roots, showing that I still had a human body attached to it locked inside the roots as if it were a suit, and took it away.

"I'll give you a few minutes to clear your head while I take care of these sugary roots, and then it's time for one more party!" She said.

"Augh..." I moaned.

Those few minutes really helped. When Mew came back out, my head was completely clear again, and I was also rather mad with her.

"I'm going to ask again, how the HECK did you get THAT from a Chikorita leaf?" I asked.

"Well..." Mew said as she put a paw up to her new flower crown she put together. "I guess I can tell you, seeing that you made me such a pretty crown..." She said.

_After sorting through the pictures and listening to the radio for a bit, Charity moved on to the scrapbook collection. Mostly they were only old picture of Sam's father's pre-legendary involved adventures. _

_"Those were happy times... Oh! Time!" She exclaimed. Seeing that Sam was probably going to come back up soon, she took a scrapbook that wasn't one of the father's and started making her way down..._

Seeing that I only had one left, I didn't want to put anything in my mouth that would stay in it afterwards, I didn't want anything fancier than plain old chocolate, and I didn't want one that was inspired from something so... so... yeah... I went with a stick of chewing gum.

"What kind of flavors you got?" I asked.

"Blueberry, watermelon, and bubble gum." She answered.

I could tell right there what the blueberry gum would do. "Isn't it against the law to steal ideas like that?" I asked.

"What? It's not like it's copyrighted to turn someone into a giant blueberry." She said.

"Boy, did that sound weird." I said. I didn't like the sound of the watermelon, so I went with the bubble gum.

"Here you go!" Mew said as she popped it into my mouth before I even told her what I chose.

**Annoying psychic cat.**

"Thank you for the compliment. Now are you going to chew that gum, or am I going to have to chew it for you?" She asked.

I didn't like that sound of that, so I started chewing. As I chewed, my body felt light again, and I felt something moving down my throat, even though the gum was still in my mouth.

"Oohh. You lucky! You picked a not so drastic change!" Mew said. I liked the sound of that, although whatever was going into me did feel less than drastic. Then I noticed that the gum in my mouth was gone.

"Huh?" As I spoke, I felt whatever was inside me rise up. **Uh oh... **

"Best to get it over with! Te he!" Mew giggled. Seeing that pressure was starting to build up, I decided to comply. I opened my mouth, but nothing happened.

"You have to talk silly! It needs a little pushing to come out!" She said.

"Fi-" I stopped in mid-word because a pink bubble had blown up, and was sticking out of my mouth!

"What the? What in the world is this supposed to be?" I asked. With every word I said, the bubble got bigger and bigger, to the point where it was as big as me!

"Ok, Mew, what is this?" I asked. It was now twice as big as me.

"You'll see, if you keep talking for about, eh, 5 more syllables." She answered.

"Ok, here it goes-" I suddenly couldn't talk.

The bubble in my mouth came out, but then it started stretching over my lips, and it kept on going further! Within seconds, my entire head was inside the bubble, making everything look pink. I still couldn't speak, but I think that by now it was from shock rather than the bubble messing up my speech.

Before long, my entire body was in the bubble. I tried pushing against it, but found that it was a lot stronger than it looked.

"Ok Mew, what are you going to do with me now?" I asked.

"Shh! This is the best part!" She said.

I didn't like the sound of that. Suddenly, the bubble started getting smaller, with me inside it! Before long the bubble was only 1 inch big, and I was inside it! Mew grabbed the bubble, and held it up to her face. Oh man, her face was huge!

"Te he! You like my shrinking bubble?" She asked softly. Her voice was still very loud at my size.

"What do you think?" I yelled.

"Sorry, can't hear you though the bubble when you're speaking in such a tiny voice!" She said.

**Ok, then, how about this? **

"Yes, that works, but it won't do you any good! Now... what do I do with you? Hm..." She said.

**Please don't eat me, please don't eat me... **

"I know!" She said as she let of the bubble, leaving me hanging in the air. Suddenly, the bubble got denser, and I couldn't see anything outside the pink wall around me. When it faded again, I found that the bubble wasn't in a candy store anymore, but way up high in the sky!

"WHA!" I screamed.

I never liked heights, and this was as terrifying as it got. I had to be several thousand feet in the air, and the ground looked so far away... The bubble around me, which I had thought was too strong only a minute ago, suddenly seemed too weak, and as I tried to instinctively pull myself back, I found that it gave back less resistance. I was terrified now, so scared that I couldn't even move...

_Charity was looking through a scrap book she had put together herself years ago. It was about 6 years ago, and it was the day Sam first rode in an elevator. He had been so terrified he couldn't even shed a tear! The only thing that got him to calm down was when his father assured him that there was no way he would fall through the glass. She shook her head. "What would have happened if he COULD have gone through it?_

I was on the ground of the candy store, rocking back and forth like a rocking horse. No matter what Mew tried or said, I couldn't move, look, or even think. There was only room for one thought in my head: terror. In all my life, I had never experienced such terror. It was like a person allergic to bee stings finding himself surrounded by a hoard of the things. Nothing was pulling me from the nightmare I had just experienced: floating in a 1 inch bubble that could pop if I made one wrong move thousands of feet in the air.

_Mew was getting seriously worried. The last time he got like this, he snapped out of it when she spoke into his mind. This time, she'd even yelled into his head, but he didn't even flinch. What had she done to put him into such a state? She looked through his memories, looking for anything that could- _

_Oh. She had just made him face his biggest fear, times a thousand. _

_Oops. _

_This was not good. Mew hated forcing people to face their deepest fears, even for fun on her part. To have done precisely that, and really overdoing it too... She decided to help him out of this the best way she could think of: put him to sleep real fast, then make him forget the whole experience..._

Charity turned toward the door when it opened, but it wasn't Sam who came out. It was a young girl, probably only 8 years old, and she was carrying Sam as if he only weighed as much as a feather. Charity recognized her in an instant.

"Mew!" She yelled.

"Hey Charity. Sorry I've taken on the form of a human again in front of you, but I don't want anyone to see me as I really am." Mew said.

"I know that! I just want to know what you're doing up here!" Charity said.

"Well..." Mew sighed. Charity was NOT going to be happy about this.

**Sometime later...**

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GO EASY ON HIM! HOW COULD YOU MAKE HIM FACE IS GREATEST FEAR LIKE THAT?" Charity screamed at Mew.

"I said I was sorry! I already erased the experience from his memories, but I'm worried that won't be enough. Is there anything I can do to help him?" Mew asked.

"Yeah, you could STOP PLAYING WITH HIM!" Charity yelled.

"You know I can't do that. You know exactly why. I erased the experience you wanted me to, why? Because I care about him almost as much as you do! Sigh... to think that the favor his father wanted was..." Mew stopped as charity raised a hand.

"Don't say it. You know as well as I do the reason why he did what he did, and there is nothing either of us can do to change it. All we can do is face this as best we can, and help him through it." She said.

"Yeah..." Mew said, "but it's harder than I thought it would be. To imagine that I was outwitted by a-"

BANG!

"HA! I knew there was something suspicious going on here!" A deep voice cut in. The lawyer had busted into the room, startling the two.

"So there's really another person living in this house! This proves that Sam was lying about needing money for his father!" He said as he pointed his finger at Mew.

"He only wanted more money to be able to keep you alive! You're no doubt a fugitive of the law in some way! No wonder he insisted that I didn't go into the basement! Once I file this, he'll pay for lying to the likes of me, and you'll be arrested for whatever you've done!" He said with a smirk.

Mew only narrowed her eyes. "You think so? All you really want is the money you get for exposing people. You have no reason to suspect that I'm a fugitive, or that I've even been in this house for more than a few hours." She said.

That stumped him. No one had ever stood up for themselves at this point. Not because they didn't have the same excuses as she did, but because they knew it was impossible for them to win an argument with a lawyer, although the evidence WAS stacked against him this time.

"That will be enough from you, girl!" He said.

Mew got a disgusted look on her face. "How many people have you lied about in order to make money? 54, including Sam?" She asked.

Now he was worried. How could she have known that! "I told you that's enough! Now stop before I call the police and accuse you of-" He was interrupted by Mew.

"You're a horrible human being. Humans like you don't deserve to be humans..." She said darkly.

He suddenly felt very light. "What are you...?" He gasped. Mew's eyes were glowing, beginning the change, but unlike Sam this wasn't a painless change: he felt everything!

"WHA?" He suddenly started sweating out of control. He could actually feel it coming out of his pores! His BO suddenly got a lot more noticeable, and Charity had to clamp her hands over her nose.

But then he stopped sweating water, and started sweating purple sludge! "AHH!" He screamed more from anguish than horror, for it felt as if worms were chewing their way out of every inch of his body, and as his mind began to fade away...

_Charity looked away in horror. She couldn't stand the sight of someone turning into a Grimer. Finally, the horrible sounds faded away, and then so did the smell. She turned to Mew. _

_"Did you have to do that? Couldn't you have just erased his memories and changed his outlook on life? Besides, isn't it against the rules to do something like that without his permission?" She asked._

_"Sorry, but I had to do it. If I had just erased his memories, he would still try and catch me, but then he might see me in my true form, and that's not something I'm willing to risk. And besides, it's impossible for me to change his outlook on life. If I did, then someone would question it, and he would come back here, causing even more problems. And as for the rule thing, well, there are always exceptions to these things, like say, counter to assault?" She asked._

_"Sigh..." Charity shook her head._

_"Besides, he'll have a happy life. There are few things in the world as happy as a Grimer in a toxic waste dump!" Mew said._

_"Yeah, but it still destroyed him..." Charity mumbled._

_"Look, it's not like I had an alternative. Even if I was willing to risk letting him go with a memory wipe, he'd ruin someone else's life, and it might be someone in an even worse situation." Mew said._

_"Sigh... fine, I'll let it go, BUT DON"T DO IT AGAIN WHILE YOU'RE IN THIS HOUSE!" Charity yelled._

_"Ok, so how can I help Sam?" Mew asked._

_"Well... letting him be will put him in a better attitude, so all you have to do is find a way to pull him away from his fear." Charity answered._

_"Oh I get it. All I have to do is rough him up a little extra, then give him some time to cool down!" Mew said. _

_"Something like that. OK, one last thing before we go our separate ways again: what are you going to do about the lawyer's discount request?" Charity asked. _

_"Don't worry, I have a plan..." Mew said with an evil grin._


	6. Day 4: Another Drink?

**Day 4: Another Drink?**

_A lawyer walked out of the mayor's house, a pleasant smile on his face. He had not only given Sam a payment break, but another week off of work. As he turned into a back alley, a little girl took his place, and she was heading for Sam's house..._

"I cannot believe you just did that." I said.

"What? Is there a problem with that?" Mew asked.

"Yeah, because if someone realizes you impersonated the lawyer so I could get a tax cut, I'll be put in a juvenile detention center! Do you realize that is the same as being in prison?" I asked.

"Oh come on, lighten up! Even if someone finds out, I'll just wipe their memories, and they won't remember what they were doing at your house!" She said.

"If everyone who comes to my house suddenly forgets the reason why, then someone's going to get suspicious, and I do NOT want to have to erase the memories of everyone in town." I said.

Mew and had I been arguing about this in the living room for hours now, and I couldn't believe she was so calm about this. What if the real guy found out he had been impersonated? No matter what I said, Mew wasn't even the least bit concerned.

"Sigh... and why do you bother going around as a young human girl?" I asked.

"Well, I have the personality of an 8 year old, and I'm female." She said.

"I know that! I'm asking why a human at all? I know you need to hide yourself, but why do you bother being a human? Why not a Pokemon?" I asked.

She turned away from me. "I don't want to talk about it." She said.

**Ok, now I'm curious. Still, if you don't want to talk about, I'll respect it, and I won't push for info. **

"Thank you!" She said. She kissed me the nose again, but this time I started blushing because as far as my senses could tell I had just been kissed by a little girl.

"So... any reason why you're still hanging around up here? Don't you have to come up with something to play with me with for tonight?" I asked.

She flopped down on the couch and kicked her legs up. "Nah, I came up with that already. I want to see what's good on today." She said. A TV appeared out of nowhere, and she started flipping through the channels.

"Why can't you do that downstairs where no one will see it?" I asked.

"Because there's no signal down there." She answered.

"Ugh..." I groaned. Giving up, I went upstairs to work on my story.

**Another day, another thing she manages to outwit me at... I wonder what she decided on doing tonight, because if it's something stupid like a lottery machine, I think I'm going to demand a make-up day for the day off I missed_..._**

_Charity was as unhappy about Mew's actions as Sam was, but not for the same reason. _

_"How could you do that? You just destroyed the guy, and then you use his no-longer body to help someone in a way that he doesn't want to be helped?" She asked. _

_Mew was still channel surfing. "Sigh... Charity, just give it a rest already! It's not like I'm backstabbing anyone, and since when is unwanted help a bad thing? Just look at kids these days and the rules parents make them follow!" She said as she finally settled on a Pokemon soap opera with a Gardevoir and a Gallade._

_"Mew..." Charity sighed. She was really worried now. _

_"It's not that," Charity said, "it's because humans are stubborn creatures. They hate accepting help, and only the strongest can actually bring themselves to ask for it. You helped him not only when he didn't need it, but when he didn't want it. This price cut may help our budget, but it's not that big a deal. We're not that poor, and we've been maintaining a steady, if not stable, way of life. Please Mew, if you're going to play with the boy, try a little hard to be considerate of his feelings. If you had taken the time to check such things, you wound have known beforehand that Sam hates heights."_

_"Yeah, but it all worked out in the end, didn't it? He doesn't even remember being shrunk in the bubble." She said not paying full attention. It was the big kissing scene on the show. _

_"You of all living beings should know that memory wiping can only be used so much before the mind begins to either get around it, or is crushed by it. This is the second time, and I can tell there are going to be plenty of times for it again later on. What if something goes wrong, and when it does it leads to his untimely destruction? Didn't you learn that once before, little girl." Charity said. Mew flinched at her choice of words._

_"Sigh... I know, I know... but it's not as easy to hold back as you might think. I know most Pokemon and humans look at me and wonder how I can be so care free, but the thing is, back when I first came to be, all I did WAS worry. After a few decades, I went insane from all the worrying, and just look at the civilization I was in at the time. I don't want to cause trouble, but it's a step short of impossible for me to be otherwise." She said. _

_..._

_"I understand... but all the same, please try and be more careful from now on." Charity said. Mew gave a light laugh. "Ha! I plan to be careful alright, I'm using a game tonight that I actually made a 2.0 version of because it was simple..." She said._

And they spent the rest of night, together in their happiness, ignorant of the world around them...

"No... That won't work..." I mumbled.

They stayed that way all night, enjoying their friendship...

"No..." I sighed.

And they stayed in their frendship-ness till dawn...

"Oh, who am I kidding? I don't know a thing about friendship!" I almost yelled. I slammed my head down onto my keypad. I'd been trying to put this scene together for two weeks now. I had skipped over it to work on other parts, but now I couldn't go further until this part was done, and without any clue how to describe friendship, It wasn't going so good.

"Why did I talk myself into writing this? Why couldn't I have just written one of those action novels everyone wants to read these days? Must be because I couldn't come up with anything good." I sighed.

... **Come off it Sam, you know the real reason is because you wanted to know what it feels like to have a friend, and because you were jealous of that Pichu when you saved it... **

I looked at the small newspaper clipping on my wall. It was an announcement of the region's new champion, and the thing was, his Riachu was that Pichu I'd saved.

"Why did that have such an impact on me? Why can't I let it go? All I did was pick up a Pokemon that needed help and delivered it to the Pokemon center. Why is it such a big deal?" I asked no one.

I had asked myself the same things almost every time I tried to work my way through this scene. And every time, I came up with nothing. It was clear that there was more to this whole picture, but I couldn't see it no matter how hard I tried.

"When am I going to figure this out? When I'm old and my health is as bad as my dad's is right now? I hope not..." I mumbled.

**That night...**

"Let's see, a board game, a drinking game, and a candy game. What are you going to throw at me this time, Mew? A video game?" I asked.

"I like the idea, but no. I've given it some thought, and I've decided to use an old game I came up with back when I first started playing with people. It's really simple, but it's so fun to watch!" She said.

**Something tells me it's going to be a less than fun to experience... **

"Aw... come on! It's not too bad! In fact, it's only going to be one change!" She said.

"OK, now I'm interested. Let's go." I said.

"Ladies first!" She said as she went into the basement first.

"Since when are you a lady? I thought you saw yourself as a girl." I said.

She turned back to me. "Lady, girl, what's the difference if you think about it. I'm still going first!" She said.

"Whatever..." I sighed.

As we went down the stairs, I noticed Mew was getting gradually smaller and pink. "Why do bother switching back? It's not like I don't know it's you." I asked.

"This isn't a change, it's an illusion. It's hard for me to manipulate a basement without giving it my full concentration, which is impossible if you're holding up an illusion." She answered.

"True… I guess." I answered back as we reached the bottom and Mew was, well, Mew again.

"Ok, so what is it?" I asked.

She struck a laid back pose in the air. "Well... you remember the drinking game?" She asked.

"Yeah, what about it? If you want to do it again so soon-" I said, but was interrupted.

"Well, I was going to tell you that it was inspired from what we're going to play. I don't want to play the same game twice in one week. That would be boring!" She said.

"Sigh... ok, so what is it?" I asked. She pointed behind me, and I looked. There was a small counter, with three bottles on it.

...

"It's not what it looks like. Just get over there, and I'll explain this one before you start." She said. That one surprised me.

"Since when are you willing to explain something before I face it?" I asked.

"Because there's nothing to explain after it starts." She answered.

I didn't buy it, but I went along because I was not going to miss a chance to know what I was about to face. Once I was in front of the counter, I noticed two differences from last time: the bottles were not color coated, and they were baby bottles!

"Oh no, you're not going to turn me into a baby again!" I yelled.

She only looked at me. "Only one of them will. The other two have nothing to do with babies. I only chose baby bottles because they are a lot easier to force someone to drink than a normal bottle. You seem to be really jumpy today." She said.

"I had a nightmare last night. I don't want to talk about it." I answered.

Mew had a surprised look on her face for a second, but then nodded. "Ok, I see. Now, this game is like the other one, except when you pick a bottle, I force you to drink the whole thing, and instead of facing a challenge, I play with you as I see fit!" She said.

…

"Let me rephrase that: I will play with you in a way that I like, that works with what you turn into. Ok?" She asked.

"Yeah. That works a little better. So what are the three fates?" I asked.

"Consider the five kinds of fates I've shown you already. One is used in all three, two are used in one each, and two aren't even used." She said.

"I get the picture." I sighed. I looked at the three baby bottles. Each of them was filled to the brim with milk.

**Mew told me that only one will make me younger, and I can't see the logic for milk making me shrink, so that takes care of two types. The partial thing is out because there is no way that much milk is only going to change one thing on me. That leaves expansion and transformation… Of the two, inflation looks more likely, but can inflation and age reduction go together well? A giant fat baby? … Well… It's not like I know what Mew's going to throw at me anyway…**

"Come on, show a little backbone! Mew cheered behind me.

"You're not helping, Mew." I said. I decided that the double ups would likely be the side ones; I went with the one in the middle.

The moment I picked it up, it flew out of my hand and floated up to my mouth. "Now open!" She said.

I wasn't willing to comply. **Oh no I'm not! I'm taking the top off, and drinking it like a cup! **

"Sigh… you never do enjoy these things do you?" She asked.

**What do you think? **

"Fine, be that way." She said.

My mouth opened on its own. **Hold on, you can't make me suck on this bottle till it's empty! You'll miss the part you love the most! **

"Who said I was? I only have to make you suck the first time!" She said. And she did, making my mouth suck on the baby bottle like I was a baby.

Now here's why Mew didn't need to force me to down the whole thing: the milk tasted SO GOOD! It was a drug: one sip and I lost all will power to stop. I was sucking away at it, and I couldn't stop no matter how badly I wanted to.

Strangely, the overpowering flavor had no effect on my mind, only my muscles. I found that I could move the rest of my body as if I wasn't sucking from a baby bottle. I didn't bother trying to remove the bottle. I was sucking on it so hard I knew it wasn't coming out until it was empty.

After a few seconds, I felt a small itch on my hands. I held them up because I couldn't move my head, and I got a good view of the yellow fur growing on it.

**Well… guess I'm turning into a Pikachu again… **

Then I noticed that the fur was lighter than a Pikachu's.

**What Pokemon has lighter yellow fur than a Pikachu? **

Then it hit me: I wasn't just shrinking, I was getting younger, and being turned into a Pichu! Right on cue, all my clothes disappeared, expect for my underwear.

**I can't believe I picked the bottle I was dreading the most…**

With every suck on the bottle, more fur grew and I lost a little more of my height.

**Mew?**

"Yes?" She asked.

**You know how you said you'd give me a body mirror if I- **

"Sure." She said.

I was immediately surrounded by mirrors again. As I watched, the Pichu fur finished covering my body. It didn't look a lot different than a Pikachu's fur, but it was defiantly lighter in color, and my cheeks were pink instead of red. My ears started stretching out again, but this time they not only got pointed and longer, they also got wider, forming diamonds shaped ears that stuck out of my head.

By now I had shrunk to the size of a 7 year old, and the bottle was now too heavy for me to hold up with just my head, so it pulled it down instead, cutting off the milk flow.

**This is my chance! **

I reached up to pull the bottle out of my mouth, but when my hands came in contact with the bottle, they pushed it up so I could keep sucking it!

**Mew! **

"What? I didn't do anything! Your milk obsessed body is controlling you, not me!" She said.

**This is so not fair...**

I felt, rather than saw, that my feet were getting plumper and my toes merging with each other. With my hands right in front of me, I had a clear view as my hand disappeared into my arm and my fingers all fussed together, leaving me with bare limbs with tiny thumbs. The bottle didn't slip though, because by then the bottle was so big I had to use both hands to hold it up.

My face stretched out into a muzzle, but it was smaller than a Pikachu's, so it didn't take up my view as much as it did when I was a Pikachu, but my teeth still got sharper, and my nose was black again. This did little to stop the milk flow. Instead, my new muzzle seemed to INCREASE the milk flow!

**Well, duh! Pichu are babies! Their muzzles are developed FOR sucking! **

Then I felt something I couldn't put my finger on at first. It felt like my underwear was getting puffier.

"Oops! Looks like someone's in a diaper again!" Mew said. Correction: my underwear wasn't getting puffier, it was turning into a diaper!

**Ok... this is weird... a Pichu in a diaper...** Then I realized something. If I was in a diaper, then I was 3 years old again, but the bottle still had some milk in it! **She's not settling for 3 years old this time! She's going all the way! **

I started crying. I didn't want to cry, but my emotions were getting unstable. And even though the waterworks were going out very heavily, the sucking didn't even slow down. I was dimly aware of a tail sticking out right above my diaper, and of my body shrinking into a Pichu's, but I didn't really pay attention.

The only thing that seemed important was to cry. Suddenly, the bottle was so heavy, I fell down on my back, but then my feet kicked up, so all four limbs were keeping the bottle up! Would nothing stop myself from taking it all in? Yep, because when I finally got control over my mouth, the bottle was empty.

With nothing to suck on anymore, the bottle fell off of me, leaving nothing in my way to cry. And cry I did.

"PPPPIIIIIII! CCCCCHHHHHHUUUUUUU!" Of course, I was screaming in Pichu. Mew wasn't too concerned. She just flew down to me, picked me up without trouble because I was baby sized even to her.

"Aw... don't cry little Sammy! Here, I have some more milk for you!" She said. She held another bottle up to my mouth, and I was sucking on it before I even realized what I was doing. Finally, I managed to get control over myself, although I couldn't stop sucking on the bottle.

**Mew, stop feeding me**.

"Why would I stop? You'll only cry if I do." She said.

**... Do you have to be so mean**?

"How is that mean? You always were a hungry baby." She said.

**Looking into my past again**...

"I'm psychic, what did you expect?" She asked.

**Sigh... Can you at least tell me exactly what's happened to me? **

"You're a three month old Pichu with a diaper on. And before you ask about the diaper, it's because I don't trust your baby bladder, even as a Pokemon, and I don't want to have to clean up after you!" She said.

**... You're really good at making someone feel horrible, you know that? **

"Babies wet their pants all the time. What's the problem?" She asked.

**Why do I bother saying anything?**

After I emptied the second bottle (which fortunately didn't do anything except fill me up) Mew put me on her 'shoulder' and started burping me.

**Can my dignity be anymore destroyed? **

"What dignity? You're a baby!" She said.

**Correction, I'm a 12 year old human in the body of a 3 month old Pichu. **

"You're still a baby. Even if not really, you are one. Sam, you have got to learn that even if you're not really what I change you into, you shouldn't be embarrassed to do things natural for that body!" She said.

I let out a giant belch. "Good boy! Now you get more milk!" She said. And then I was sucking on a third bottle.

**Look Mew, it's not that I'm embarrassed- **

"Yes it is. I can read your mind, and I know that's the real reason why." She said.

**Ugh... but it's true! I haven't been fed like this in 11 years! Why shouldn't I be embarrassed to be fed when I'm 12 years old! **

"You said it yourself: you're a 12 year old human in the body of a 3 month old Pichu. Even though a 12 year old human would never do these things, a 3 month old Pichu would! You have got to learn that even if you think it's embarrassing, it's only natural!" She said.

**That coming from the 50,000 year old who has the personality of an 8 year old...**

"I didn't say I had to do the same!" She said.

**Should have seen that coming...**

A few hours passed like this. The two of us arguing over what I thought of the things I did after I was changed, while Mew fed me and burped me. As we argued, I noticed that she seem to be waiting for something.

**Say Mew, how long am I going to stay like this? **

"Just a little bit longer. I'm waiting for something to happen before I send you to bed." She said.

**What in the world could you- **Then I felt my stomach get heavy all of a sudden.

...

**Mew! YOU PROMISED ME THAT WAS A ONE TIME THING! **

"It was! You've been drinking nothing but milk, so this is going to be the other reason why I would change your diaper!" She said.

...

**That... is... so... unfair... **

I felt a sudden dampness in my diaper.

"Oops! Look like someone had an accident and needs a diaper change!" She said.

**I need a vacation...**

_When Sam came up early that day with a horrible look on his face, Charity knew that Mew had pulled some kind of stunt. And judging from the way he kept looking at his pants, she had to guess it had to do with the same thing as day one. _

_"Sigh... Sam, we need to talk about this." She said._

_"I don't want to talk about it, I just want to go to bed." He said. He marched right past her without even glancing at her, but Charity was not discouraged. _

_She grabbed him by the shirt, and dragged him all the way to the living room. "I mean it. We NEED to talk..."She said._

"Sigh..." I shook my head.

"Chansey chansey!" Charity said.

"For the last time Charity, I'm not interested in seeing a counselor! Besides, even if I did find one, he/she would never believe me when I said my body is physically changed in unorthodox ways by a legendary Pokemon!" I said.

Then Charity threw a newspaper clipping right into my face. "Chansey, chansey!" She said.

"Fine." I sighed. I read the title: New Law allows Pokemon to be Counselor.

...

"What in the name of Mew?" I yelled.

_You rang? _Mew called up.

**... I really need to watch my choice of words. **

_Yeah, you do. _She said.

The article stated that because the only counselor in town was seriously injured during a sky diving accident (details at page four), the town had decided to allow his Pokemon, an Espeon, to take over until he recovered.

"Chansey Chan!" Charity said.

"Now why would a Pokemon have an easier time believing me than a human?" I asked.

"Chansey Chan!" She explained.

"Good point..." I mumbled. I leaned back into the couch. Apparently, Mew forgot to take back the TV, so we had one now. I turned it on, looking for something to distract me.

"Ok Charity, I'll go give it a shot first thing in the morning tomorrow." I said.

"Chan. Chansey Chan." She said.

"Don't stay up too late watching TV? What are you, my mother?" I asked. We both froze up when I said that. I froze up obviously because I hated to think about comparing anyone to my mother, but I had no idea why Charity froze up as well.

...

"Er... Let me rephrase that: I got it." I said.

"Chansey..." She sighed. She seemed rather depressed as she walked out of the room. "Sigh..." I mumbled, "I'm going to have to build up the courage to ask her one of these days..."


	7. Day 5: To the Carnival!

**Day 5: To the Carnival!**

...

"Chan?"

...

"Chan?"

...

"Chansey!" Charity cried.

Smack!

"Ow! Charity! What?" I said as I rubbed my stinging face. Then I noticed the Espeon in front of me.

"Oh. Er... sorry?" I said nervously.

"Espe. Espeon." It said calmly.

...

"Chansey Chan." Charity said, translating.

"Oh. Ok then, let's go." I said. We were in the therapist's waiting room, and I had just been called in. It was kind of weird, being lead by a Pokemon that only stood as high as my knees.

**Wonder how this counseling is going to work... **

"Espe!" It exclaimed.

We had arrived at an empty room with two mats on the ground. One was Pokemon sized, and the other was just about my size.

**Guess that answers my question...**

"Espe! Espeon!" It said.

"Chansey, chan." Charity translated.

"Ok." I answered.

I knelt down on the human sized mat, and the Espeon sat down on the other.

"Espe, espeon." It asked me.

"Chansey, chansey-chan." Charity explained.

"Er... how exactly am I supposed to 'open my mind'?" I asked.

Charity slapped her forehead. "Chansey chansey!" She said with an annoyed tone.

"Oh, right." I said with a slight blush.

I calmed down, closed my eyes, and tried to not think for a bit. It's harder to do than it sounds.

**... **

**... **_Hello. _

**Wha! **

I opened my eyes.

I wasn't in a room anymore, instead I was in a small office with a desk in front of my nose. And said nose was sticking out in front of me!

**Wait a minute... **

I looked down.

**I'm 100% Eevee! **

_100%? _I heard in my head.

I looked up. The Espeon was standing (if you want to call it that) on the other side of the desk, and because I was an Eevee, it was actually bigger than me.

_For the record, I'm a she, not an it. _She thought at me.

**Oh, er... sorry? **I knew I was blushing under my fur.

She smiled, or at least what accounted for an Espeon smile anyway.

_It's alright. I can see that you use the term because you didn't know my gender, not to be insulting to the fact that I'm a Pokemon. _She said.

**Whew. For once I didn't think myself into trouble. **

_For once? _She asked me.

**Well... it's kind of a long story... **

_If it's about Mew, I already know. _She said.

**Wha?** That caught me by surprise.

She just gave me smile.

_It's how I keep things going. I read your mind as we walked to the meditation room. So, Sam, what exactly do you want help with in this situation? Being a legendary's play thing isn't the most pleasant of experiences. _She said.

**Oh? Were you ever- **

_No, but my trainer was once. _She shivered. _He volunteered to be Celebi's toy for a few days a long time ago. I don't think he's ever recovered from it. Especially from that family history tour._

_Now, I know there are differences between Mew and Celebi, but the deal is mostly the same: go into his/her chamber, they hit you with a game, and it almost always revolves around you being messed with one way or another. Now... let's see just what is the main problem... _She closed her eyes, no doubt looking into my memories.

**Hey, uh... **

_Epilia. _She answered.

**Epilia, would you mind if I try and get a little sleep while you read my mind? I'm kind of a wreck…**

_Not at all. This one may take a while. _She said.

**Ok, But one more thing-**

_I turned you into a Eevee in this mind link so that we would appear to be on equal levels. Now, go ahead and rest. If you want me to perform a hypnosis... _

**No thank you... **

I layed down on my four paws, closed my eyes, and drifted off...

_Epilia couldn't believe what she was reading in Sam's mind. Between his strange calmness after the first few changes, the panic point of his greatest fear (which had been erased from his memories, but not even Mew can erase them from other psychics), and the strange reactions of Charity... _

_"_Something must be going on here." _She mumbled to herself. "_Something big, something that both Charity and Mew don't want Sam to know about..." _She thought about looking into Charity's mind, but the Chansey was resistant for some reason. She couldn't read her memories unless Charity let her..._

When I woke up from my little siesta, I saw that I was still in the Pokemon mental-conversation-link thingy, and still an Eevee.

"Yawn... man I needed that." I said. Looking up from my yawn, I saw that Epilia was still deep in thought**. **

**Guess she wasn't exaggerating when she said this was going to take a while**_... _

_No, I am merely gathering my thoughts. You can go back to sleep if you want to, though. _She said.

**Oh. Nevermind then, and no thanks. I think I'll try and get used to this body in case Mew sends it at me again.**

I turned away, and tried to stand up. Now, even after four days of being Mew's plaything I was still shaky with the whole shape shifting thing. And although I was already turned into an Eevee in a way, this was my first time standing on four legs.

It wasn't easy to even stand up on them, but after a few tries I got the hang of it. Walking proved to be a real challenge, mostly because my center of balance was focused at the center of my body, so I had to keep my feet organized in a manner that kept it centered. It's tricky. If I moved my right front leg for example, I would have to move my right rear leg next, but not until my right front leg was back on solid ground. If I did anything out of order or crooked, I ended up on the floor. After two dozen attempts and failures, I got the rhythm down, though I still needed to fall down to turn and couldn't move faster than two steps every 5 seconds.

_Hm... Alright, I think I have a plan of action. _She called to me.

**Oh? **I cocked my feet under me so I could turn to face her.

_Here's what I want you to do from now on. It mostly revolves around two points. First, whenever Mew introduces a new form of transformation, or variety of transformation for that matter, I think you should come and see me so that you'll be able to prepare better for it next time, like you just did here. _She said.

**Ok, now that sounds like a plan, though why AFTER the first time? **

_I only know three kinds, and you've already experienced all of them. _She answered.

**Oh.**

_Second, if the games get too stressful, you should also come to me and talk about them. Talking about a situation, and viewing it from another perspective, can __ease the marks they leave upon the conscious mind.__ When you're not here to see me, you should not let it get to you, do not think too much about what is to come, and try to be a little... embracing to the changes. _She said.

**Ok... I got all of that... except the last part.**

_Think about it: if legendaries find it impossibly irresistible, then is it really all that bad? You should try and have fun with it if you can. It's easier to handle things you find strange but fun instead of strange and stressful. _She said.

**Hm... I don't know if I can do that... **

_It may take some time to truely have fun with it, but doing so may be the best thing for you to do. _She said.

**Ok... I guess... anything else? **

_Not for now, no. I don't think I'd be able to help you with anything today, and I DO have another patient to treat in a few minutes. _She said.

**Ah. Ok then... how do we go-**

Bam!

WE were back in the room with the mats.

"Espeon!" She exclaimed.

After a quick shake to clear my head, I turned to Epilia. "Thanks for your time." I said.

"Espi!" She responded cheerfully with a bow.

**That Night...**

"OK... give me the list." I said.

"Chansey chan?" Charity asked.

"Check." I answered.

"Chansey Chansey?" She asked.

"Check." I answered.

"Chan?" Charity asked with a glare.

"Yes, Charity, really." I said.

"Chansey sey!" She said.

After I got home from therapy, I found that Charity had come home early and prepared a list of things to make sure of before heading down to see Mew: (1) no eating 2) no drinking 3) no items other than clothes, etc...), and she was REALLY on my case for making sure my underwear didn't have any holes in them. I highly doubted Mew would actually be inspired by torn undergarments, but it wouldn't be the first time I'd underestimated that cat.

"Ok... I'm ready for action!" I said.

"Chansey chan!" She reminded me.

"I'll try." I turned to the basement door, took a deep breath, and-

_Isn't this a bit much? _Mew called up.

...

"Tell that to Charity. It was her idea." I said.

"Chansey Chan!" She said with a huff.

_True... but still a bit much. Now come on down Sam! I have a SPECIAL game set up for today! _Mew said.

"Why am I getting a sinking feeling in my gut from that? Sigh..." I moaned. Now with regret as well as determination, I opened the door and headed... outside?

"WHAT THE!" I yelled.

_Oh come now! You KNOW I can do this if I want to! Why is it still a surprise? _She asked.

"It's not a surpirse, just a shock. I wasn't expecting something like this on day five." I answered.

Mew had amazed me again: She managed to design her own carnival! It had seven attractions as far as I could tell: a water slide, a haunted house, a balloon stand, a roller coaster, what looked like a giant rock formation, one of those fish catching tents, and of course, a concession stand.

"So... what do I have to do?" I asked.

"Just pick three attractions, do 'em, and you're done." She answered.

...

"Let me guess... one of these attractions is a new kind of transformation, isn't it?" I asked with a glare.

Mew just giggled. "I think you're starting to get the hang of this!"

"Thanks... I guess..." I sighed.

Looking around, I tried to decide which one to avoid. Needless to say, my first impression was to keep away from the concession stand, the mirror house, and, well, everything else, but I knew Mew would pick for me if I took too long, so I decided to go with the fishing hole, mostly because I'd always loved that game, and I felt confident I could avoid something I would want to.

As I made my way there, Mew, er... commented on my choice.

"The fishing hole? Aw... that's the lamest thing here!" She complained.

"That's exactly why I'm going there." I said.

"Party-pooper!" She said and stuck out her tongue.

"Sigh..." I put a hand on my head.

**Why am I getting a headache? Are you attacking me or something? **

"Nah, I would never sink that low! There's no fun in just being mean! Your brain's probably just cramping up at my cuteness!" She said with a spin. I had half a gazillion counter arguments, but I knew better than to argue.

When I got to the fishing hole, I noticed something missing. "Hey, Mew? Where are the fishing poles?" I asked.

"Right behind you!" She yelled behind me.

I turned around, only to see Mew pointing a bazooka at me! Before I could even yelp in surprise, she pulled the trigger, and the bazooka lauched a torrent of water at me that I swear could have rivaled a Blastoise's Hydro Pump (except it didn't rip my face off). The force knocked me into the pool, and as it turned out there were Magikarp in it, and they were hungry.

It took me 2 whole minutes to pull myself, dripping wet, out of the pool with 3 Magikarp still clinging to me. They were puny by Magikarp standards, but that didn't stop them from chomping on my leg, arm, and the side of my shirt.

"I don't recall seeing a bazooka water gun at the local toy store." I said as I kicked the Magikarp on my left leg back into the water.

"Yeah, but that's why I win every time I play water tag." She answered.

With a sigh, I tossed another Magikarp into the water.

"I wouldn't throw that last one back if I were you; unless of course you'd like to go for another swim. Not that I'd mind." She said with a smile.

"Let me guess..." I said.

I reached over and pulled the last magikarp off my shirt and held it in front of me. There was a number on it: 366.

"Congratulations! You got number 366! Your prize is getting buried in sand!" She said.

...

I turned to Mew. "Wait, what kind of prize is THAT? Not some transforming backscratcher or something? And just how are you going to bury me in sand?" I asked.

She just smilled at me and said "Look up."

I did, and immediately wished I hadn't. Not that I was surprised or anything (I kinda saw something like this coming) but because as soon as I looked up, the giant bucket full of sand that was hovering right above me turned over and dumped the sand right on me, and some got in my mouth when I opened it in awe!

"Pumf... plal! Yuck!" I spat it out as best I could, but I didn't try and wipe it out because my earlier swim in the water made the sand cling to me like a blanket. "Ok, dare I ask how you're transforming me now that I'm covered in sand?" I asked.

"Simple! That was only half the prize!" She said. She flew behind the counter and picked a prize off the shelf. It was a toy sized clampearl shell.

"Wait a minute... a Clamperl!" I yelled.

"Aw... is it that obvious?" She said playing with the shell.

"Seriously, a CLAMPERL? How the heck is that even a transformation? If you just give me the shell, I'm basically being turned into a pearl!" I yelled.

"And how is that NOT a transformation?" She asked.

...

"Sigh... Ok then, why the sand?" I asked.

"Clamperls are distant cousins of oysters!" She answered.

...

"DISTANT, as in, started evolving diffently so long ago that even _**I**_ can't remember?" She said.

"Ah. So... basically the idea is because oysters make pearls out of sand, Clampearl shell + sand + me = pearl transformation?" I asked.

"Yeah that's the basic idea. Except for one thing." She said.

"Oh? And that is?" I asked.

"This isn't the shell I'm going to use. It's only a toy, anyway." She answered.

...

"OK, then where's the one you're using?" I asked.

"Around here somewhere." She answered.

I immediatly looked behind me, and saw about 20 or so clampearl shells.

"Ok... I'm NOT going to question the logic behind this. Do I get to pick, or what?" I asked.

Mew just started humming to herself.

"Sigh..."

I looked down the scattered shells and noticed that they were all different colors. One was typical clampearl color, another was mostly green, and so on and so on. Deciding to just pick my favorite color, I went up to the green one. I opened it up and saw that, not too surprisingly, it was empty. "Ok... do you expect me to just get into th-"

"This is SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Mew yelled from behind me.

Mew kicked me into the shell that only came half-way up my leg, and it quickly closed shut with my whole body inside it. I would have started metal yelling my brains out at mew for how impossible that was, but 1) I gave up caring about how she bends reality some time ago 2) I had something else to argue with her about.

**A 300 quote! When did you see that movie! **

_I didn't. I just saw the clip on you-tube and loved it. _She answered.

**Since when does a legendary, even one that can bend realilty, get on the internet! **

_Since I got a computer. _She answered.

**... **

**You know, I really need to stop caring about this stuff. **

_That you do. You need to learn to just have fun with what happens! _She said with yet another giggle.

**Yeah, except nothing's happening in here... **

And indeed, despite the fact that it should be impossible for me to get into the shell, nothing was happening. I didn't feel my body changing, and I could still feel the walls of the tiny shell pushing on me from all around.

_That's cause I was too busy laughing at the movie quote, not that you would have noticed. Wanna see what happens? _She asked.

**And watch my body get squished into a pink sphere? Tempting, but no thank you. **

_Suit yourself. _She said.

Then I started to feel the familiar lightness, and the transformation started. There was nothing to see in the shell, and despite what I was expecting I didn't hear anything either. All I did was feel it.

I felt the way my body shrunk down and the walls stopped pressing in. I felt my arms and legs pull into my body (which was an EXTREMLY bizarre sensation). I felt my head merging into my body (which fortunatly only felt like someone was pushing down on my face), and I felt the way my skin started to harden. Where the sand played into I don't know, but I imagine that it was what changed my skin. Finally, the lighness faded, leaving me feeling rather stiff, but I guess that was expected when one looses all their limbs.

**Ok... now what? **

_Open your shell, and say hi to the world! _She said.

**How? It's not like I've had a body part not directly attached to me before!**

_Hm... good point. All the same, I'm not opening it for you. No place better to learn than the first time! _She said.

**Sigh... Ok... how am I going to do this? Think Sam... a Clamperl's pearl is the head, so that means that the cushion-thing it's on is my body. That makes the outward shell my... limbs? Ok... let's try that...**

I tried to picture myself sitting with my arms and legs in hoop formations in front of me, and I tried to move my 'arms' up. To my surprise, the shell inched open and light came in. I was also surprised that I didn't even have to blink when the light shined right in my eyes.

**Guess clampearl eyes can resist light better than human ones. **

I kept up the opening effort, and the shell continued to open, to reveal that Mew was floating right in front of me.

"Aw... you're such a cutey widdle pearl!" Mew said. I swear if my entire head wasn't already pink I would have been blushing (if clamperls can even blush).

"Er... do you have a mirror or something?" I asked. To my delight, my voice was only higher pitched, and still sounded somewhat like my own.

"Yeah, here." She said as she pulled a mirror out of nowhere and held in front of me.

I was a clampearl alright, in a green shell. My face even seemed to be peacefully sleeping even though as far as I could tell I was staring at it eyes wide open. Unable to resist my curiosity, I turned my head and, indeed, my entire 'pearl' turned to the side. It was creepy. I could actually feel the friction on my pearl's cushion (which is also creepy to say).

"Ok... so what now? I just sit here and experience being a pearl?" I asked.

"Nah, that's too boring! you've already done everything you can do movement-wise, and I'm not intrested in teaching you moves anytime soon." She said.

I was relieved at that knowledge. Also a little... disappointed?

**Guess I'm starting to get a little curious... **

I thought back to my counselor meeting. This meant I was starting to get comfortable with this stuff... right? Well... I was still freaked out by the whole thing but...

"Ok, so what do you have in mind?" I asked.

"In mind! Good one! But at any rate, I think you'll enjoy this. There's no game, challange, or anything like that. You only have to expierence something for about 20 minutes or so." She said.

"And that would be?" I asked.

She flew down to my shell and grabbed the top. "You'll see, just keep shut until I tell you, ok?" She said. She then shut my shell, which was also creepy as I not only felt it lowering, I felt the impact as it closed.

**Why do I have a bad feeling about this**_? _

_It's just you, and THIS_! She said.

I suddenly felt an impact on my shell (more creepiness)! Mew had kicked me again, and sent me flying! I couldn't feel the wind (thank goodness, cause any more creepy feelings and I would have snapped), but I did feel the momentum, and the sudden lightness on the inside as my pearl slightly lifted off the cushion. Then I felt an impact, but the momentum didn't stop for a bit. Finally, my shell stopped.

**Ok, since when were you so skilled at kicking! **

_Well, I had to put these huge feet to SOME use! And besides, I'm always kicker when me and the other minors play football! _She said.

**Minors? **

_Smaller legendaries. You think me, Celebi, and Shaymin play sports with Rayquaza and Groudon? _She asked. This made another question occur to me.

**Am I allowed to ask how the legendaries interact with other? **

_Yes, But I'm not allowed to answer unless you run into two together. _She said.

**Fat chance of THAT happening... **

_So you going to open up and look around or what? _She asked.

**Ok, Ok!**

Once again, I visualized the sitting position and went to open my shell. As soon as It opened a crack, something rushed in with the light!

"Gah!" was all I got out before I was submerged... in water! My first reaction was to try holding my breath. To my surprise, I was able to hold it, and hold it, and hold it. I finnaly realized that I probably didn't need to hold my breath as I was a pokemon that typically lives underwater.

**Um... how exactly do water types breathe underwater? **

_You already are. You're just holding air in your mouth. _She said.

**Oh... **

I let out the breath, and I noticed a few bubbles float up past the line of light coming out of the crack I had opened. I was not breathing at all (which was weird), yet I was breathing underwater. Once I calmed down, I realized that it was kinda cool. I was breathing underwater!

**You know, this was one of my childhood fantasies... **

_You're asking if the psychic legendary who's been with you for almost a week now didn't know? _She asked.

**Point taken... **

_Are you going to open up or not? _She asked.

Gingerly, I continued to open my shell, to find myself in some kind of aquarium! Sand beneath me, rocks beside me, and even a bit of seaweed scattered around. Looking up, I was about only 10 feet below the surface, which was shining brightly from the sunlight. This whole picture made me feel... content?

**Why is this so... so... **

_Pleasant? You're a water pokemon in water. Of course it's going to feel good! It's called natural environment... She said_

_"Ready?" The hunter nodded to his partner. They were in a small forest near a town. It was very risky to hunt near civilization, but there had been rumors that a legendary was around here. The money one could get from a legendary... well, if they caught one they would be set for life. Not to mention this forest was full of rare goodies ripe for the picking. So, even if they missed the legendary (which as much as they'd hate to admit, it was very likely) they'd still go home with a good catch or two for the black market..._

"Ok, I have to admit... that was a rather refreshing experience." I said once I was out.

"See? Not all transformations are stressful!" She said with a smile.

"I never said that. I just don't see what you enjoy about them so much." I said.

Mew just shrugged. "I suppose that's true, pitiful mortal. You could never comprehend the thoughts of a mighty legendary."

I just shook my head. "Whatever. Any recommendations for the next ride?" I asked.

"Well..." She eyed the rocks.

"Ok then, that's where I'm NOT going." I said.

"Aw..." She gave me a sad puppy-dog face.

"You know I don't give into the- wait a minute... are you tricking me into not picking the one I'd really want to pick?" I asked

"Maybe..." She said with a naughty smile.

...

"Ok, this is cruel. You're messing with my head!" I said.

"Come on, you know what you're going to go with in the end, so just start marching!" She said.

**Sigh... one of these days Mew, I am going to beat you at your own game of wits.**

"Maybe, maybe not! Good luck trying though!" She said.

"Sigh..." Without another word I set off. When I got to the rock formation, I noticed a small cavern leading in. "Ok... what ride is this anyway?" I asked.

"A rapid ride. Need I say anymore?" She asked.

"Nah, I get the picture." I said. After walking down the cave a bit, it started getting dark.

"OK... now what?" I asked after it was pitch black.

"Just wait there for a minute!" She said.

So I did. Suddenly, the I felt the floor disappear under my feet! "Whah! Oof!" It wasn't a long drop. I didn't even feel the impact through my shoes. But then I noticed that my new ground was... unstable? Then I noticed the sound of flowing water. "Guess I'm on my rapid rider. Wonder what rapids I'm gonna face." I said to myself.

Then I noticed a small light approaching. "Ok, here we go..." Once outside, I had a clear view... of the mile long downward rapid river!

"Ok... I was kinda expecting that." I looked down quickly to see if there was anything I could grab onto. That's when I noticed that I was floating on a cliché hand-made raft (you know, a bunch of parallel logs tied together?) with a few extra logs stacked on the sides, to make VERY small barriers on the sides.

I took the hint and quickly dropped to the floor just as the raft hit the first drop. Sploosh! The motion kocked me around a bit and splashed a little water onto the raft (though not on me). But in all, it didn't push me around very much. "At least I don't have worry about going for a swim..." I said.

"Yeah, but you DO need to worry about this, pardner!" I heard from above.

I looked up and, (surprise!) Mew was floating above me, wearing a cowgirl outfit, armed with a (thankfully normal sized) squirt gun. Pointed right at me.

I quickly turned my head, and got a blast of water on my ear, which stung a bit. "Neh..." The stinging quickly faded into a mild itch. I reached up to grab my ear, but instead found that it had slid up the side of my head and was now pointed, like a fox.

"Wait a minute... Is the water causing the transformation?" I asked.

"You betcha, pardner!" She answered.

I quickly rolled over to dodge another squirt of water. "Ok... that's not too crazy or anything. Wait a minute... what water type has fox ears?" I asked.

"Who said it's a water type?" She answered.

Then the raft hit another drop, and I was caught off guard, so I wasn't able to move out the way of the splash completely, so my left arm got soaked. Glancing at it quickly, I noticed that it was sprouting red fur on my arm, and brown fur on my hand, which was quickly turning into a paw.

"A fire type!" I yelled as it dawned on me. The rapids suddenly seemed a lot scarier.

I don't think I need to draw out how the rest of my rapid ride went. Needless to say, despite my efforts, I got plenty wet. Not only was water splashing on, it was staying on! And don't get me started on mew's part in this. I'm still positive that she was using 'homing ammo' or something. Plus, she spent the whole shirade using cowboy slang. I swear she's doing it solely to annoy me.

It didn't take long before the red fur had grown all over me (and my clothes had melted away), and the rest of the changes were already underway. My hands were already paws, and my feet quickly followed. My other ear joined its brother on the top of my head. My limbs shrunk down and my stance went from biped to quadruped (not that it really mattered; I was on the floor already).

My body shrank down a bit, its dimensions shifting as it went. My eyes grew bigger inside my head, causing my vision to expand, only for the bottom to get cut off by my expanding muzzle. By that point I had a pretty good idea of what I was turning into. And as if to prove my point, I felt my hair curling at the front. I was turning into -no, I was almost- a vulpix. Well, at least I was when the raft FINALLY reached the end.

The only thing I had managed to keep human, or rather not pokemon, was my 'tail.' I was a tailless vulpix. I let out a sigh of relief as the water under the raft finnaly stopped, and the raft's motion also came to a stop. To my surprise, I let out a small flame with that sigh.

"Ok... now what?" I asked, noting that I was speaking in Pokemon again. Mew flew down to me.

"What's the matter pardner?" She asked.

"I don't have enough experience with walking on four legs to jump over the out walls." I said.

"Eh, guess you're stuck in here then, pardner!" She said as she pulled her cowgirl hat over her eyes.

"I'd be more amused if you didn't use the fake western accent." I said, a little fed up.

She gave me a less than amused look. "This raft ain't big enough for the two of us!" She said.

Before I could even roll my eyes, she was behind me, aiming her bazooka at my furry backside!

The water pressure wasn't painful, thankfully. But I don't think I need to say how uncomfortable it was. "YYAA!" The force was, however, strong enough to lanch me out of the raft, onto a small patch of dirt that I guess it had run aground to.

"Oof!" My landing was less than graceful. I couldn't get back up right away, not just from the sting of my landing, but from the ache of 6 tails pushing out of me. The feeling of a growing tail was nothing new to me. However, the feeling times 6 was definitely a bit much for me to handle easily.

"There, now you're done!" Mew said. She was in front of me again, minus the cowgirl gear.

"Sigh... Ok, what do you have in mind this time?" I asked, struggling to my feet.

"What do you mean, Sammy?" She asked as she gave me a very innocent look.

"Sammy? I'm not so sure you have to right to give me a pet name." I said.

"Says who? I'm a legendary." She said.

"Sigh..."

"You were saying?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah. I'm starting to see a pattern in your games." I said.

"Hm..." She put a hand to her mouth, and then snapped her fingers. "Then I guess I'll have to do something to mix things up!"

My heart leaped. "You mean I don't have to do any crazy stunt or something!" I asked.

"Of course not, that'd be lame! I'm just going to add something that's not technically a transformation, but a change none the less!" She said,

My heart dropped back down. "Sigh... ok, so what exactly do you have in mind?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing much, just something to help you dry your fur, and a few other things that you probably won't hate too much." She said.

"Your choice of words is disturbing." I said.

"Yet, I stay cute and cuddly." She said.

"Speaking of which, why you do always turn me into small and cute pokemon? I'm 12! Can't I be allowed a LITTLE dignity?" I asked.

"You still have some? After the diapers, the outwitting, and the lack of common sense I've put you through?" She asked.

...

**I should have kept my mouth shut. **

"Well, if you REALLY want some dignity, you could try evolving with a fire stone." As she said this, one appeared in her paws and she began throwing it around in a careless way.

"Ninetails are a pretty noble species." She said.

The idea of evolving had never occured to me, and upon realizing it, it terrified me, especially the way she was closing in on me with the stone. "Er... do I get any say in this one?" I asked.

"Aw... is the widdle foxy afraid of growing up?" She teased.

Ok, now I was REALLY scared.

"Er..."

FLASH!

Mew pulled a camera out of nowhere!

"YES! That expression was PRICELESS! This one's going in the scrapbook for sure!" She exclaimed.

...

**I think my heart just went on strike. **

"Do you HAVE to scare me half to death like that over a picture? And when did you have a scrapbook?" I asked.

"No, but I felt like doing that before you got too used to me. The horror face loses its touch with experience." She answered.

I was, literally, lost for words. Again.

"As for the scrapbook, I make it a habit to take pictures of all my toys in their most embarassing and amusing situations. So yeah. And come on Sam, would I ever REALLY use an evolution stone on you?" She asked.

I gave a glare of annoyance. It was all I was capable of at the time.

"Ok, explanation required I guess. The thing is, I take evolution VERY serious. I'm a firm believer that pokemon sould be free to choose thier own evolution! It's a really important, not to mention difficult, decision to make! It's permanent, so there's no going back!" She said.

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Though, you're not really a pokemon are you? And it wouldn't technically be permanent, so I guess..." She said.

I froze up again.

FLASH!

"Score another one for me!" She said.

And Mew got lost in a fit of giggles. I just stood there, feeling any shread of dignity I'd retained up to that point leaving my body.

"Te He! Besides, why would I want to get rid of such a cute widdle fox!" She said as she gave me an oh-so-cute look, which only made me feel worse. "I mean, look at you! With that cute curly hair, those luxuriously soft and fluffy tails, and of course that gorgeous pelt of red-brown fur! Why, you might even be almost as cute as me!" She said.

I stood corrected. I still had dignity to lose, and, to my horror, it seemed I was capable of blushing even through the red fur. But I still had shreds of my wits!

"Did I hear you being humble?" I asked.

"Did you fail to hear my sarcasm?" She asked.

**Dang it! I was close that time!**

"But still, if you want to TRY to be as cute as me... we'll have to fix you up! Besides, we don't want that wet fur of your's to stink up the place! And I know just how to do it!" She said.

She grabbed the firestone again, and opened it up like an Easter egg! And inside it was a big blue button.

**Blue? Not Red? **

"I'm allowed to avoid clichés if I want to." She said.

Beep! The ground under me started going down, showing that she had driven me onto a elevator!

"HOW IS THIS AVOIDING CLICHES?" I yelled up at her.

"Poetic License!" She yelled back.

"Why didn't I see this coming?" I moaned to myself as I was lowered into cliché darkness.

As the light above me disappeared the dropping sensation left my stomach (or what was left of it), I called out: "Can we just jump to the game already? Haven't you had your daily dose of randomness today yet?"

"I don't have such a limit, but I agree: let's cut to the chase before you dry off." She called out from nowhere.

Flash!

The blackness lit up, momentarily blinding me. My eyes got used to the light to reveal...

"A POKEMON BEAUTY PARLOR?" I yelled in horror. Mew didn't answer. She didn't need to. The pink and white striped walls said it all. So did the table I was standing on that clearly belonged in the dressing room of a snobby movie star, complete with a lightbulb barrier mirror.

"Oh Arceus! PLEASE tell me you're not going to send in some kind of fashion designer!" I pleaded.

_Nah, those humans have NO sense of true beauty. Besides, I like a good dose of high-tech now and again! _She said.

Right on que, a human sized robot wearing an apron popped up out from under the table, complete with 7 arms each with some kind of fashion tool. Proceeding with wash. It beeped out.

_By the way, I legally own the FDS2000, so don't go stealing my invention! _She said.

"Wouldn't dream of it." I mumbled bitterly as I struggled to escape the robot's hose and shampoo. Not that I did a good job as the stupid thing kept me pinned down! Probably a feature mew added to stop rebellious toys I guess.

**One Embrassing Bath Later...**

Once the the water was washed off the table and the hair dryer turned off, I realized just how annoying it is to have your fur... poufy. My vision was a tad blurry, I felt like I was wearing TWO winter coats, and I swear there was enough static in my fur to power a microwave.

Wash complete. Proceeding with grooming. Then came in about half a dozen combs.

I hate to admit it, but the grooming felt... rather nice. It felt like... I dunno, a massage or something, only without the impact.

"Oh..." I moaned in pleasure. I was really enjoying this one. I was even whining a little!

Wait.

WHINING?

I stopped myself right there.

**Ok, what the heck was THAT? I know I'm a pokemon right now, but... I don't know how to do that! Is there something more to this? **

_It's called INSTINCTS human. It comes with the body. You can't exist with a new form without SOME kind of instinct! _Mew called out.

I raised an eyebrow (if I still had one).

**What does that mean? A small voice in the back of my head or something?**

I heard Mew sigh in my mind. _Why am I niether surprised nor relieved? Not ONE human I've played with understood the concept, yet it's still bizarre to hear! Forget it, Sam. Let's just say it's a bit of natural pokemon behavior that comes with the change as a side effect. _

**If you say so.**

Grooming complete. I turned to face myself in the mirror. I really did look cleaner. And I also noticed that my hair tuft was still sticking out of my spiral 'haircut'.

"Eh, guess even legendary built machines can't take it out. Chew on that, Mew!" I said with a bit of personal pride.

_Hm? You want me to fix you completely? I WAS going to just clean you up, but if you want to look cute like me too, I'd be happy to grant your wish!_ She said.

**Wait, what?**

Procceding with accessory addition.

I had a split second to turn around, just for the robot to clamp a collor around my neck! "YA!" It wasn't tight at all, and I could barely feel its weight, but I DID notice the cat bell on it! Just looking down caused to the jingle! And that was not the end of it.

When I turned to run, it went after my tails, pulling each aside for a moment, then letting them fall back with a ribbon on each. PINK ribbons. My moment of pride was gone in a flash. Next a bunch of bead bracelets made their way up my limbs as they were hoisted up, leaving me to helplessly squirm. They were a green (thank goodness), but they still helped ruin my manly image. If a vulpix can look even remotely manly, that is.

I rolled over as it released me, only to find that the action wrapped a blue cloth around me, which was quickly safety pinned shut. In one last ditch effort to escape, I made a wild jump. Because I wasn't coordinated enough with four limbs all I managed to do was plow my face into the table. Which also put it in the perfect position for it to slip a tiara on my head. Looking in the mirror, it had gems in it. Bright red gems.

I couldn't reach the ribbons or the pins on my 'dress'. The beads were caught in my fur, and the collar was too small for my paws to pull off. And I didn't dare touch the tiara. I did NOT want to touch what could only be firestones built into it. Accessory addition complete. Looking in the mirror, I looked so... so...

"ADORABLE!" Mew cried.'

Flash!

I didn't even bother turning around. I could see Mew floating behind me in the mirror, camera going wild.

"I barely remember the last time the FDS2000 was THIS effective! I especially like the pink ribbions. It really draws out your feminine charm!" She said.

I growled. I was surprised to have done so, but I had other things on my mind. "I'm not SUPPOSED to have feminine charm! I'm a guy!" I yelled.

"Yes, but you're also a vulpix. They can't help but be a little girly. Better get used to it. Vulpixes are not the only Pokemon that are stereotypically female." She said.

My growl changed to a whine. That idea did NOT bode well for future events. With a sigh, I laid down, exhausted, while Mew continued her picture spree.

"By the way, why didn't bring your camera out sooner? There were more than plenty embarrassing moments before today." I said.

"Who said I didn't take any? I just didn't use THIS camera. If there's one thing I really like about human fantasies, it's those tiny video cameras they have in spy movies. Why just take pictures when you can record a whole scene?" She asked.

I put my head down in defeat. "My life has gone to the dogs." I said with a weary tone.

"You mean to the legendary cat! And today, gone INTO the fox!" She said.

I let another sigh.

_"Bah! What a waste!" The hunter tossed another branch into the fire. The two of them had set up camp at a riverbank. "2 hours of hunting, and not so much as a caterpie!" "Hey, relax! It's not like we've been caught yet! Besides, we haven't caught so much as a caterpie because we didn't bother with them!" "And it was YOUR idea to do so!" "Are you blaming me for this?" "No, I'm just saying it's your fault we've got nothing! Where the heck is that Mew?"_

By the time mew got me back to the carnival, I was feeling a little better. Not by much, but it was enough for me to look up and try and pick my final ride.

"I'd go for the roller cooster!" Mew said.

I let out yet another sign. "Mew... please. I'm on my last leg here! There's only so much indignation I can take in one day! I'm tired, I'm scared, and besides, it's not like you're going to be getting any more good reaction out of me!"

"Oh really?" She said in a smug voice.

I let out another sign. "You know what? Forget it."

I turned and headed for the haunted house instead. Why the haunted house? I'm not really sure, but I blame my dark mood. As I slowly walked over, mew didn't let it go.

"Why aren't you going to the roller coaster?" Mew asked.

"Becuase last time I took your advice, I ended up in a beauty parlor!" I snapped.

Mew sighed. "Ok... you got me there... but-"

"NO!" I yelled. And with that I reached the house, opened the front door, and marched in.

The house was pretty good, I had to admit. Cobwebs, ugly pictures, and it somehow managed to cut off all light. Even the line coming in from the open door behind me seemed to be nonexistent. As Mew flew in behind me, the door slammed shut, and instantly it might have been the middle of the night

"Let me guess... I'm going to get jumped by something as soon as my eyes adjust to the darkness, right?" I asked. Mew didn't say anything, but just as my eyes began to adjust, Mew gave a small yelp behind me.

I turned to look at her. I saw what I first thought was a wisp of smoke crawling up her tail. As it made it's way up her tail, however, I noticed that it left a dark color on her fur, caused it to tuff out a bit, and it was more solid looking than smoke.

"Uh, mew? Is that...stuff part of the ride?" I asked.

She didn't answer. She just continued to stare blankly at nothing. The stuff kept creeping up, and about where it reached halfway up, I noticed that her tail tip was getting a little... pointed?

"Mew? Are you ok?" I asked. Again, she didn't say anything. She just floated there, letting the stuff change her.

By this point, I still wasn't scared. I mean, just today she'd put on a cowgirl suit without warning! I just figured it was just a detail to the house. After all, pink isn't exactly a creepy color.

"Ok mew, you can skip the effect, I'm not scared." I said.

Mew still didn't say anything. The stuff then reached her lower body, and as her fur continued to turn black, I noticed that her feet were actually getting a tad wider as well as dark.

"Ok, so maybe it is kind of cool, but could you hurry it up?" I asked.

She STILL did not answer me. The black wave just kept going. When it reached her hands, I saw small claws poke out of her tiny paws.

"Ok mew, seriously, knock it off." I said.

She FINALLY gave a soft moan, but it was probably just because the wave had reached her neck. As I watched the wave creep over her face, her eyes closed, her ears turned to an evil point, and her whole face seemed to gain a less-innocent look.

"Ok... now it's over. Can we move along with this thing already?" I asked.

She didn't answer, but let her head drop. I let out a sigh and shook my head. She clearly wasn't going to listen to me during this ride. Fine by me, I could do with the silence, even though I did wonder why mew even bothered with the darkness thing. That's when I noticed the cold. It wasn't really cold in terms of temperature, but I suddenly found myself shivering.

"Ok... I have to admit this is a nice touch..." I mumbled.

Mew didn't answer. Instead, a deep a creepy laughter seemed to come from everywhere at once. When I looked around to find the source, I noticed more of that stuff seeping thourgh the walls, turning the entire room pitch black.

"Ok... can we get to the point already?" I asked.

She STILL didn't do anything. But that's when I noticed a pair of red eyes behind her.

As I watched, the eyes moved forward from the dark stuff to reveal a rather hungry looking mightyena -at least judging by the strings of drool dripping from its bared teeth. This was the point when I actually got a little scared. Creepy things pooping out of nowhere? I could stomach that. A living, breathing, and possibly rabid mightyena looking at me like a meal, not so much.

I glanced quickly over my shoulder and noticed an open hallway behind me. Then I heard the evil laughter again. Nervously, I turned back to the mightyena and Mew, just in time to see Mew open her eyes. They were blood red. She raised her tail tip and pointed it at me, and then said in an oily, twisted voice: "FEED ON THE MORTAL'S FLESH!"

I didn't even bother seeing if it decided to obey or not, I just turned and ran.

The hallway turned out to be long. REALLY long. How long? I have no idea, but it was defiantly long enough to ensure that the mightyena was going to catch me (it WAS following me by the way. It's pretty hard to miss the sound of clicking toenails and the occasional snarl that were getting closer and closer). Then I could finally see the end, which came into focus to reveal a door.

I didn't hesitate when I reached the door. I yanked it open, slammed it behind me, and shoved my shoulder into it.

Bang!

I'd have said it used Giga impact, except that the door managed to hold (much to the pain of my shoulder). It banged against the door a few more times, and then silence. I put an ear to the door, but still couldn't hear anything. Slowly, my heart began to slow down, and as it did, I started to feel angry at myself.

**Sam... you moron! Of course that was going to happen! The whole darkness thing was just part of the ride!**

I ranted at myself a bit, still facing the door. And that's when I heard the growl from behind me.

...

**Oh... Crap...**

I silently moaned as I turned to face the mightyena breathing down my neck. We stared at each other for a moment, but then it pounced.

"YA!"

Instictivly I put my left arm up to protect myself, which the brute promptly sank is teeth into.

"Gah!"

It let go, and jumped back. I looked up in surprise. It was gone.

**Wha... so the eat my flesh thing... was only a bite? Why would THAT be thretening?**

I got my answer when I glanced at my bit arm. The teeth marks were tiny, and as I watched, they shrank into nothing.

...

"This can not be good." I mumbled to myself.

With a deep breath, I finnaly turned to face the room I was in. The walls were covered with black sheets, and there was somthing shinning on the floor in the middle of the room.

"I am NOT going to approach that." I said to no one.

_NO NEED... _

As mew's 'dark' voice echoed through my head, the shinning object grew bigger. That's when I noticed that the object was actually a dot of light shinning in from a hole somewhere above me! I took the hint and nervously backed up against a wall. As I watched, the light not only expanded but began sweeping along the floor at me!

"Oh, come on!" I moaned as I jumped to the side. For some reason, it stopped when it hit the wall behind me. "Ok... what is this all about?" I asked.

I got not answer for a minute, but then...

_EMBRACE THE DARKNESS!_

Suddenly, all the black sheets fell to the floor, exposing an array of full body mirrors! In an instant, the entire room was lit up with the light. And I was left dumbfound.

"How is this related to dar-" I started to say, before I felt my body being to heat up. "Wha..." Was all I could get out before I fell to ground as the burning feeling grew stronger. It was incredible! It was like raw power was compressing inside me!

It wasn't long before it became too strong. I started to sweat and twitch, shivering with unknown energy. I clenched my fists, praying that want ever was happening to me to finish before I snapped. And then, it did, with a bang.

"AAAAHHH!" I screamed as the heat became an intense burn! And then, I started changing again. (For clarity, I'm looking back on this one. I was too caught in the pain to notice it at the moment.) Think grey and black fur pushed it's way out of my entire body. My hands and feet crunched into paws. My face pushed out into a sharp muzzle as my teeth grew razor sharp. My body twisted and bend as it reformed itself into a canine's, my arms and legs becoming equal in length.

And as my spine pushed out into a long think tail, my scream suddenly stopped. And then, without even realizing it, I pulled my head back and howled at the celing.

Finally, the burn began to subside, clearing my head.

**Oh man... that hurt... **

I took a deep breath, and tried to take my bearings.

**Ok... it's probably safe to assume I'm not human at the moment... **

I lifted my head up and looked into a nearby mirror. A mightyena looked back at me.

**OK... So that bite was... **

And then I saw the logic: a Were-mightyena. I felt like punching myself for not realizing it earlier. I looked higher up in the mirror and, sure enough, it was the light of a full moon that was shinning down.

**... Compared to some of the other stuff I've face already, this is rather... normal. **

I mental slapped myself.

**No, it's not normal! I'm a pokemon again! And a dark type, too! **

_That's rather discriminate... _I heard in a soft voice.

I saw mew appear behind me in the mirror, back to her normal pink self.

**Oh, like you can talk! What the heck was that 'dark mew' thing all about?**

She gave a giggle, and then answered "That's my inner darkness. It's a side effect of always being in such a peppy mood. Sometimes I just get a sudden desire for doing something scary."

**And turning me into a baby wasn't scary?**

"Oh, you know what I mean." She said with a shrug. "Besides, it wouldn't be scary if you got over your dignity."

**What dignity? I'm pretty sure the shreds I had left have vanished!**

Mew had another fit of giggles. "Well, I suppose I HAVE had my fare share of fun for tonight. And besides, those beauty parlor pics are so good, I'm sending them to all the other legendaries!"

Needless to say, the idea of my humiliation being widespread among the guardians of the elements was not appealing to me. At all.

...

**Mew. Please. Can we just get tonight over with?**

"Ok! but first you need to howl at the moon again. Just once, and you can go to bed." She said.

... **What?**

She pulled out her camera. "I missed my chance to snag an awesome pose of it. So make it a good one!" She said.

**But... I don't know how to...**

She rolled her eyes. "I'll ignore the fact that all you have to do is point your nose to the moon and howl to remind you that even if you don't know, the wolf you have become does. I think you could use the oppertunity to work with your insticts for once. You're going to have to use 'em soon enough anyway."

Once again, the idea did not appeal to me. But I took the hint, and looked up at the moon. Sure enough, there was something inside me that told me to howl. It didn't tell me outright how to do it, but was a nudge in the right direction. And, fortunately, that was all I needed.

I'm not exactly sure how it sounded, but there was something about unleashing the energy I did when I howled. It was just... incredible, for lack of a more creative term. A sense of power, authority...

"And that was easily one of the longest howls I ever heard. Did your brain freeze and forget to tell your mouth to shut?"

And Mew quickly killed it.

I turned my head back down, possitive I was blushing if I was capable of doing so.

"I mean, seriously. It's like you set yourself on auto-lock or something. It was kinda freaky." She said.

**Er... guess I kinda... got a bit too into the feeling...**

Mew smiled. "Been there, done that." But then she sighed. "But seriously, you need to treat yourself to a little power one of these days if just howling at the moon gets you that big a rush. Care for a video game? I know this one for the PC about commanding an army of aliens."

**Eh... can I just decide on that in the morning? Besides, you're probably going to give it to me anyway.**

She went into another fit of giggles. "You're REALLY starting to get the hang of this! Yeah, ok, let's get you back to normal."

She waved her hand and the moon turned into a sun, making the haunted room look more like a barn. As I turned away from the glare, I felt a light burn course through me...

And then, nothing.

Whne I could see again, I looked down and saw that I was still a mightyena!

**Uh... Mew? what are you waiting for?**

Mew was rubbing her non-existent chin. "Hm... that's weird. Were-beings always turn back when the sun comes out... unless... uh oh."

Mew grabed at the air next to her and ripped a hole in what I guess was her mini reality. She looked out, and got a clear view of the sweat drop that creped down her back.

**Mew...**

She turned back to me with a blush. "I just looked into the real world and... well... you'll never guess what I saw!"

...

Then it hit me.

**Don't tell me... it's a full moon tonight, isn't it?**

She nervously put her hands together. "Yep! And I think I should mention that another thing about Were-beings is that the full moon things is just a mith. In reality anymoon light causes the transformation, it just that the full moon makes it impossible to reverse."

**...**

"So... on second thought, maybe just having you howl was a bit too easy. How about in addition you just spend the night as a pokemon!" She said.

**...**

"YENA?"

_**One teleportation later...**_

Up till then, I had been associating the insanity of my current problem with the basement. So, when I found myself in my living room on four legs and looking UP to Charity, I felt a small amount of vertigo. And what I saw on her face left me rather terrified. When Mew had explained that I was going to have to spend the night as a pokemon, she didn't yell, scream, or even get an angry look.

In fact, she just had a painfully calm look. I call it painful because I knew all too well what it meant. As soon as Mew finished giving her explanation to the unexpeted development, she just calmly left the room. Mew took the hint.

"Er... should I start running in terror?" She asked nervously.

**Can't you just go into your world and lock the door?**

She rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Well you see, I kinda had to make a deal with her about taking my games too far and-"

That's when Charity decided to come back in. Holding a rolling pin. In a rather threatening way.

I'm not sure what happened after that. One second Mew was looking at Charity and vice versa, and the next they were upstairs in what was probably a VERY nasty chase/battle. At least I think it was nasty. Charity was swearing a lot.

And unfortunately, I couldn't watch because there was no way I was climbing a staircase on four legs. It was a shame too, because I would have given anything to see Mew getting hit with a rolling pin after what I'd been through the past few days. So, with a sigh, I had to settle for standing next to the stairs and listening to the mayhem. Mew's ow's were music to my extra sensitive ears.

Finally, things quieted down, and the two came back down. Charity look rather pleased with herself, and Mew was wearing several bandages. They both gave me the feeling I wasn't allowed to ask. Neither of them said anything about the fight then, and they never did later either. I just assumed that they had come to an agreement that Mew would be more carefully from now on.

Mew just waved her hand and a pokemon bed appeared in the middle of the living room, and teleported away. Charity gave me a nod at said bed and headed back upstairs, humming a lullaby. I took the hint: time to hit the hay.

I turned nervously to my temporary bed. It was defiantly big enough for a large dog pokemon like me, I could see that, but how to sleep as one was beyond me.

With a sigh, I stepped into it, and slowly lowered myself. Or at least tried to before I lost my balance and fell over. It was soft landing though, and it actually was a pretty conferrable position. Heck, I actually started to fell a tad drossy. A tad. My mind was far from weary.

**Who am I kidding? I'm not getting any sleep tonight. Between my siesta this afternoon and those photos, I'm doomed to get nothing, and anything I DO get is going to be filled with nightmares. **

I looked out the window at the full moon.

**Man, I'm really starting to wonder if this is worth it. I'm going to go insane before this is over! And now every legendary is going to know me as a girly vulpix... And I don't even know if I want them to KNOW I exist! **

**Sigh... If I ever go on a pokemon journey, I'm going to be looking over my shoulder every step to make sure there isn't one tailing me...**

Suddenly it didn't seem like such a bad thing, for a moment. The problem was, besides my divided mind on the matter, the facts hit hard whenever I thought about maybe becoming a trainer. The free-starter deal is only for 10 year olds. Those who miss their chance have to get lucky and score a left-over extra, or provide their own pokemon.

**I can't use Charity. She's dad's pokemon, and we know each other too well for me to give her orders. Mew's out too. She'd never let me use her like that unless it's for a game, and I can't see her doing that in the time we have together. That just leaves a wild pokemon...**

I closed my eyes and tried to calm my racing mind.

**And why would a wild pokemon want anything to do with me?**


End file.
